


Shattered Inferno

by routa



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Blood and Injury, Guns, M/M, Mystery, Non-Graphic Violence, Not Beta Read, Original Character Death(s), Platonic Life Partners, Post-Canon, Queerplatonic Relationships, Romance, Romantic Friendship, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:40:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 100,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25410277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/routa/pseuds/routa
Summary: Two years after the Second World Blaze, tentative peace has started to settle into Promepolis. Things are improving, but the Burnish who are trying to reintegrate into society still face bureaucracy, prejudice, and trauma. When a string of disappearances makes things even more complicated, Lio Fotia steps in and tries his best to coordinate search efforts that may lead to a messy web of lies and lingering regrets. And of course Galo Thymos gets dragged into it as well, because he was never one to pass up a chance to rescue people.NOTE August 1: Chapters 1-3 have been revised and there are some small but important changes! I have listed them in the beginning notes of each chapter. I am so, SO sorry for the inconvenience, all! :(
Relationships: Lio Fotia & Galo Thymos, Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Comments: 73
Kudos: 71





	1. Sparks

**Author's Note:**

> I am having severe writer's block that's tossing all my current original story projects into some kind of swamp of dead creativity and I'm severely stuck with them, but for some bizarre reason my brain then goes: "MYSTERY/DETECTIVE FICTION PROMARE FIC!" and writes like the entire plot while I'm trying to fall asleep. So I guess this is my hopefully effective effort to cure writer's block and to have fun.
> 
> Even though the narration may sometimes be from the point of view of original characters, all of them are only either living props or slightly more developed for the purposes of driving the plot. Because a mystery needs suspects and culprits. And victims/missing people. And sometimes taking an outsider's POV to describe a main character works better and is way too fun.
> 
> I hope at least some of you enjoy this! English isn't my first language, so feel free to point out if I mess some things up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT 25 July: Changed the time Phedra had been missing from two days to five, as well as the time that has passed since the Burnish started to go missing from two months to three. It makes more sense this way. Sorry for the inconvenience!
> 
> EDIT 1 August: Added a flashback into the beginning of the chapter. Moved the cryptic flame-speak part from the beginning of chapter 2 to the end of this one. Fixed some wording.
> 
> EDIT 13 September: I drew cover art! It kinda just started with "haha since this is sort of a detective story they should be wearing trenchcoats!" And then I ended up googling goth coats and had to draw a thing. Lio's coat is inspired by a Gothicana-brand coat, a design named Asherali.

_Thirty years ago, the impossible happened._

_Dimensions overlapped, which was less rare than one might think in the grand scheme of the multiverse, but from the point of view of a single planet, it was nearly impossible, momentous and life-changing._

_Fire and Earth had merged, and so had fire and humans._

_Everything burned._

_Kray Foresight had promised himself that he would stop it, no matter the cost. Maybe to justify his own existence. Maybe simply because he was a man without compassion and only after power and glory._

_Whatever the reason, he had been clever and managed to act just at the most profitable moments. He had created a city state for himself to rule, and he had started hundreds of secret projects around the continent, all hidden underneath his pristine public image, and often a significant amount of bedrock._

_Even after he had been exposed and nearly everything he had built had come crashing down, many of the secrets had remained. Many of the people who had been working on those secrets also remained, some wishing to forget what they had done, and some thinking they had always been right. And some perhaps seeking to atone._

_Underneath a large, scorched desert, a building had been tucked away. In it, people had worked for years with trapped flames all around them._

_Pods filled a big storage area, generators still running even after the dimensional rift had been sealed and the fire in the Earth's core had left._

_Silent screams were still echoing in the dreams of the scientists, most of whom ran from both the laboratory and the law._

* * *

It was getting dark, and more and more of the already plentiful artificial lights of Promepolis were blinking on. Some of them were neon pink and reminded Officer Livvy Bates of Burnish fire. She forced herself not to think about fire, not entirely sure if it was appropriate in front of the worried, middle-aged woman who had called Livvy and her partner, Darion Greer, to her house.

Livvy Bates hadn’t been to many Burnish homes, but she supposed she shouldn’t be prejudiced and expect anything other than a normal home. Nowadays, the Burnish didn’t spontaneously combust or breathe fire anymore. They were basically indistinguishable from everyone else, if one didn’t count the traumatised or paranoid expressions most of them had. And _that_ was something Livvy wouldn’t fault them for. It was other people who had caused that by treating the Burnish like monsters. Sure, they had had the potential to be legitimately dangerous with their powers – powers that were no more – but even that had been no excuse to deny them basic human rights.

Livvy blinked back into focus while her partner asked questions from the woman who had called them. The woman lived in one of the poorer areas farther away from the city centre, but at least she had a tiny home, unlike many of the Burnish, who still lived in shelters or on the streets. Her name was Phoebe Deo, and she had called because her sister had gone missing. Just the simple fact that a Burnish had called the police was pretty unexpected, since most of the Burnish were still very wary of the authorities. Livvy couldn’t fault them for that either, despite Promepolis doing a thorough overhaul of the police after the city state’s former governor had been exposed as a tyrant and subsequently arrested. But considering this was the third reported missing Burnish case in the last few weeks, maybe the Burnish had become more worried about going missing than about talking to people in uniforms.

“You mentioned that your sister is often gone overnight,” Darion Greer – who had a name and face like a poet and the nerves of a professional poker player – said to Phoebe Deo, who nodded with wide, reddish eyes, “What makes you think that she’s missing?”

“Phedra always calls me,” Phoebe Deo said at once, “Or texts, even when she’s gone. We all have our ways of… dealing with stuff. Stuff like trauma, or missing our flames. Hers is being alone. But she always tells me not to worry. This time she called at first, but then didn’t. And when I tried to call her, there was nothing.”

She took a deep breath. She looked stoic, but in the manner of a person who had seen too much and got used to hiding pain just beneath the surface. Internally, she must have been sobbing with worry.

“I asked around, but no one has seen her in five days. It _has_ to be something…”

She trailed off, looking down at her feet. She had no shoes on, but she had wrapped a thick cardigan around herself even though the late summer night was relatively warm. Livvy and Darion shared a look, but didn’t have time to continue their questioning before the roar of a motorcycle cut through the quieting night. They wouldn’t have paid it much mind had the sound not come closer and swerved to the parking space nearby. It was a monster of a custom bike with black and neon pink paint job. Phoebe Deo cast one look at it and her eyes brightened in relief.

The bike’s rider swung themselves off the bike, revealed themselves to be absolutely tiny next to their transport, and walked across the yard in all-black biker gear, about thirty belts, and a helmet that looked like it wanted to eat you. Darion raised his hand in greeting while Livvy took a moment to wonder what exactly was going on. The rider stopped and pulled the helmet off their head. Livvy raised a surprised eyebrow, not really because of the rider’s soft, androgynous face that contrasted with the cutting glare of his pink-purple eyes, but because Livvy realised she recognised him from both TV and police mugshots. _Everyone_ in Promepolis could recognise him. He was the face of Burnish liberation, a former arsonist, and one of the people who had apparently saved the world nearly two years ago in an incident that was a mess of underground magma activity and bastard government people and human experiments.

Livvy’s first impression of the Burnish leader had been that he was too young for this shit. Hell, she had thought this kid was too young to _drive_ , but apparently not. She also thought that him being here could mean trouble. He and the police weren’t on the best of terms.

Darion extended his hand towards the boy, who eyed it with caution before shaking it. He was wearing fireproof gloves. On a second glance, almost all of his clothes were fireproof. Many high profile Burnish had quickly started wearing special, protective clothing after some bigoted asshats had decided that it would be a _great_ idea to start carrying fireworks and randomly throw them at Burnish. Sometimes Livvy didn’t like humans at all.

“Darion Greer, from the police,” Darion said, “That’s my partner, Livvy Bates. Were you coming here to visit Ms. Deo?”

“Lio Fotia,” said Lio Fotia, as if everyone didn’t know it already, “What are you doing here?”

He spoke softly, but with a hint of a challenge. Livvy crossed her arms but kept her own voice just as calm.

“We were called here for work.”

“To help?” Fotia asked, and his disbelieving tone was _definitely_ a challenge.

“Yes,” Livvy said.

“Lio, officers,” said Phoebe Deo, stepping forward and raising her hands in a placating gesture, “There’s no need for any confrontation.”

She turned to Fotia, whose face immediately softened into genuine worry.

“I called the police right after I called you,” Ms. Deo said, “I didn’t think they’d be so efficient.”

She sounded apologetic. Fotia waved a hand.

“If they’re _really_ here to help, then I won’t have a problem with them. Don’t worry about me, are _you_ okay?”

“Worried,” Ms. Deo said, “This isn’t like Phedra at all…”

“I know.”

“Um… sorry to interrupt,” Darion said, “But can you tell us what’s going on? Why did you call Mr. Fotia here?”

“Oh, right,” Ms. Deo said, “We always report any serious trouble we face to Lio. When Burnish started to go missing, he told us all to call him if anything came up. Also, Phedra was a part of the Mad Burnish before it was disbanded, so Lio is technically her boss.”

“She was a part of the terrorist group?” Darion said, and Fotia’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

“Resistance group,” he corrected, “She was always very level-headed, and never took part of any ill-advised violence.”

Almost no one in Promepolis was exactly sure how the Mad Burnish gang had operated, just that they had ridden motorcycles and committed arson, and that they had become far less violent in the last few weeks before the Burnish had lost their powers. From what Livvy could tell, it was Fotia who had reformed the gang and used it as a strike force against people who had secretly kidnapped innocent Burnish. It sounded fairly noble, but still…

“It’s still good to take into account,” Livvy said, “You know there are still many bigots who attack the Burnish, especially former Mad Burnish, without any provocation.”

“It’s sad that you think you need to tell me that,” Fotia said icily, “No one else who has gone missing was Mad Burnish, but yes, these _could_ all be unconnected hate crimes, if that’s what you’re thinking of. But considering that some anti-Burnish people have publicly declared their intention to systematically hurt us, _and_ that some of former Foresight Foundation employees have already been released from prison or still at large, anything is possible.”

That _had_ crossed Livvy’s mind as well. The Foresight Foundation had been a deadly combination of good publicity and dark secrets. It and its founder, former governor Kray Foresight, had ruled Promepolis while secretly experimenting on Burnish for years until it all had finally come to light, right before Foresight had almost destroyed the world. Most of the former Foundation employees who were already free were basically grunts, not too committed to whatever cause the Foundation had had, but it couldn’t be ruled out.

“Noted, but let’s not get into any wild theories before we find out more,” Darion said, “What do you know about Phedra Deo?”

“She reintegrated into her old life and got back to her job in a small company that sells alternative medicine,” Fotia said at once, “She has lived here with her sister ever since the Parnassus incident. She hasn’t been in any trouble and has occasionally called to tell me how well she and Phoebe are doing.”

Well, it matched what Ms. Deo had told them, at least. And Fotia was being cooperative even while he watched their every move with clear distrust. Maybe this wouldn’t end in problems after all.

“Anything else?” Livvy asked.

“Not much you need to know about,” Fotia said, “I haven’t heard from Phedra in two weeks, which isn’t anything new. But then Phoebe called me, and, well, here I am.”

He glanced from Livvy to Darion before turning back to Ms. Deo.

“I can wait at the bike until these two are done with their questions. If you think they’ll really look for Phedra… I suppose talking to them can’t hurt.”

Ms. Deo nodded. Darion sighed.

“I understand if you don’t trust us-”

“No,” Fotia snapped and spun around. It was amazing how much presence a pale wisp of a boy could have with the right attitude, “I don’t want to hear any speeches right now. I know your new police chief is being as fair as she can be, and I _hope_ all of the officers do their best to follow her example. But we’ve been betrayed far too many times. If you _want_ us to trust you, then give us a reason to. Eight Burnish have gone missing, and you’re only _now_ taking it seriously enough to start looking properly?”

“We _have_ been working on- Wait, _what_?” Darion blurted out, “Eight? We’ve only got three reports so far!”

Fotia ran a hand tiredly through his pale green hair.

“I suppose I can’t fault them for being scared and not calling you. If I don’t count the ones who have later been found beaten or stabbed in an alley, eight cases have been brought to my attention within the last three months. I can report them to you right now, and you can call me if you find anything.”

“Thank you,” Livvy said, “I promise we’ll do everything we can to find them.”

“So do I,” Fotia said, and Livvy wasn’t sure if he meant that as an ominous statement or simply wanted to tell them that he was playing detective himself and trying to somehow crack the case on his own. She decided not to ask, and also decided that it would be a waste of time trying to tell Fotia that amateur sleuthing usually only worked in books.

In the end, Livvy and Darion left the Deos’ house with six new cases and some vague details of completely ordinary people who had simply not returned home.

As they walked back to their car, they could feel Fotia staring at them through the falling darkness, eyes like a Burnish flare.

* * *

There were many things Lio Fotia had had time to experience in his so far fairly short life. He had been a host for parasitic fire aliens, lived on the run, shoplifted, been a part of several secret communes, led a resistance force, participated in underground operations to help the oppressed, learned to make motorcycles out of fire, watched stars in the desert, tracked down missing people, faced discrimination, endured abuse, and nearly died several times. And for the last couple of years, he had spent a lot of time trying to recover and sort out his life, because most of the things on the list of Lio’s Experiences were awful and traumatic.

Recently, his life had been less about accumulating more trauma and more about fighting for equal human rights for all, sitting in boring meetings, being swarmed by media attention, and trying out this thing called domestic, normal existence. While he could do without some of those things, he had to admit that he liked having an actual life instead of a struggle. Which was why he had somewhat mixed feelings about once again accepting the task of tracking down missing people. On one hand, he _wanted_ to help and he was used to feeling like every Burnish in Promepolis was his responsibility, but on the other, he knew that he didn’t necessarily _need_ to shoulder all of the Burnish problems on his own anymore. Also, investigating missing person’s cases was a task that could lead to finding more traumatic things, but then again, it felt slightly _less_ stressful than trying to ignore stupid media gossip thrown in his face, or yelling at city officials while hoping that they’d finally pull their heads out of their asses and agree that _yes_ , they could maybe speed up getting homes for the homeless if they just put in some effort. Still, maybe he should leave this to the police now that he had at least made contact to them. If only to make an example to the rest of the community. To remind the Burnish that they were a part of society again. That Promepolis was doing better. That the police weren’t like Freeze Force and wouldn’t just be out to get them… hopefully.

Okay, so maybe Lio also didn’t trust the police all that much. And maybe he was too dedicated to stay out of this.

At least finding missing people was less out of his hands than bureaucracy, and at least he had a whole gang of people who were glad to help him with that, as well as a community who trusted him enough to let him know as soon as something came up. Mad Burnish may have been officially disbanded, and he may not be officially a leader anymore, but in practice, very little had changed on that front. Even now, they were taking turns searching the city for signs of the missing.

He parked his bike in a garage that he was renting with the modest pay he got by being an officially appointed Burnish rights representative. He locked the doors because there were a lot of people who’d love to steal or vandalise the primary transport of the former Mad Burnish leader, and then walked the short way home.

_Home_ was the apartment of Galo Thymos, self-appointed universe’s number one firefighting idiot and Lio’s world-saving partner. Lio paid half the rent and shared the space so maybe soon he’d start thinking of it as his apartment too. Somehow, _home_ was easier to grasp than _apartment_ , maybe because Lio had got used to not having much of anything, and home had been wherever his people had been. And Galo was also his people, not in the same sense as the Burnish were, but in the sense that he was Galo.

Lio entered the silent, dark stairwell of the apartment building and ran to their floor. He didn’t like the silence. It made him pay too much attention to the quietness of his mind. He had been so young when he had first awakened to the Promare, the aliens who had set the Burnish on fire. Their whispers to burn, burn, _burn_ had been a part of his life – a part of _him_ – for all of the time that had made him who he was now. And now they were gone. He knew they had to be gone, because they hadn’t belonged here. They belonged to the star they called home, and their being here had caused problems for everyone.

Knowing all that didn’t make the cold silence any easier, though. Knowing all that didn’t take away the ache he felt whenever he remembered the whispers, the quiet laughter. The Burnish hadn’t asked to be on fire, but they had done the best they could to embrace it once they had been. They had made it a part of who they were. And now…

It was better, safer this way.

It wasn’t fair, and it _sucked_ that they had had to give up so much of their selves, but it was better.

Well, except the flames would have helped his missing people to fight back against whoever or whatever had made them disappear. They would have helped them send signals, or just burn brightly until they were seen. They would know what to do instead of just stumbling through this silent, cold world they had to readapt into after knowing fire for so long.

_Then again_ , burning had been what the other people had been so afraid of. And if they had still been burning, they wouldn’t have a home in the city. They would be missing in larger numbers, still stuck in horrible facilities, experimented on, and killed because their only worth to some had been as a resource.

No. He shouldn’t think about that now. Now, their problems were different. And he wouldn’t be able to help anyone by staying up all night and digging up past trauma that was perfectly capable of digging itself up at the worst possible moments anyway.

Lio opened the front door of Galo’s (his?) apartment and was immediately greeted with a slightly too loud:

“Lio! You’re back! I was about to start looking for you!”

accompanied by a blue, shower-damp fauxhawk and a face that usually beamed with a brightness close to that of the sun. Now the face was worried, but somehow the energy was still the same.

“I’m fine,” Lio said, “A Burnish named Phoebe called me about her sister going missing.”

“ _What_? Another one?!”

“Yeah. It’s… not good, to say the least.”

“Do you still have no leads?”

“Nothing much,” Lio shrugged himself out of his fireproof, faux-leather jacket and kicked off his boots, “It could all be just random hate crimes, but… I don’t know. I have a feeling.”

He thought back to the list of missing Burnish he had given the police. Eight people who had been once connected by the flames and fear and not much else, but it had been more than enough.

_Phedra Deo_

_Kieran Alannis_

_Jace Morado_

_Aika Hadley_

_Terri Vesper_

_Dalia and Alec Vale_

_Carlya Gage_

All of them knew each other to some extent, but that was no surprise, because all Burnish who remained in Promepolis knew each other, or at least knew of each other. Some of them were older, like Dalia and Alec, who had been a calm, loving couple before and after they had known the flames. Some were still young, like Jace and Carlya, who were still so idealistic and loud about equality – not that Lio was any different. None of them wanted any trouble. All of them had disappeared without any fireworks. They had just… gone out and not come back. And while Burnish did go missing fairly regularly in general, they were usually found soon, beaten or murdered, and it was horrible but at least they were found. This was… too quiet, too long without anything.

“Lio?” Galo asked, and Lio realised that he had spaced out partially because of swirling thoughts and partially because he was just tired, “Did something happen? Did someone try to get you too?”

“What? No, I just-“

“With the Burnish going missing like this, I want you to be careful out there! I want-“

“ _Galo_.”

“Oh, sorry. Got a bit carried away there. What were you gonna say?”

“Nothing happened. I went to see Phoebe, the police were there, but they were civil. After they left, I stayed with Phoebe because she needed someone to talk to.”

“Will she be okay?” Galo asked right away, because _of course_ he was worried about a complete stranger.

“I think so,” Lio said, “She’s strong. And she’ll be fine once Phedra is found… Well, _if_ we find her in one piece, that is.”

He sighed.

“Sorry… I shouldn’t be so morbid. Until we find them, we can hope for the best.”

“Yeah! That’s the spirit!” Galo exclaimed, but then his smile faltered a bit, “Hey, you okay?”

“Yes,” Lio ran a hand through his hair, “Tonight isn’t our turn to do a sweep, so I suppose I should just rest.”

“Yeah, you should.”

“I just…” Lio trailed off, taking a deep breath and automatically putting on a brave face.

“Yeah?”

Oh, right. He was supposed to talk about his feelings now. Both his therapist and Galo kept reminding him of that.

“I feel angry”, he said, “And frustrated. Sad. Worried.”

“Oh yeah, that’s an unpleasant combo,” Galo said, “But I’m glad you told me. Is the overall mood ‘I need to punch a wall’ -kind or ‘I need a hug’ -kind?”

“A… a bit of both, I think.”

“Okay,” Galo nodded as if everything in the world made sense, “so then it’s the ‘I need to eat some good food and watch a movie’ -kind.”

“How is _that_ a combination of wall-punching and hugs?”

“It _is_ when we watch something with punches in it,” Galo slung an arm around Lio’s shoulders, “Come on! Varys brought food for us at work today, because he’s awesome! It’s veggie stir fry and it’s really good! I saved you some.”

And that was it. As if things were that easy. And in Galo Thymos’s world, they often _were_. Lio kept being baffled by it, even as he somehow also loved it. Actually, that was pretty much how he felt about Galo, the damn idiotic marvel of a human being, as well.

Some people – especially certain kinds of reporters – kept asking Galo and Lio _what_ they were. It annoyed Lio to no end, mostly because it wasn’t any of their damn business, but also a bit because it shouldn’t be that hard to _get_. Even though a lot of things in this world didn’t make sense, their bond somehow did. They had piloted a mech together to save the world. They had set the world safely on fire with their combined souls. That should be all kinds of mind-boggling and stupid – and it was – but somehow, it had _clicked_. They were Lio de Galon and Galo de Lion. At first it had meant having each other’s backs in a decisive battle and punching the world with a flaming energy mech, but now it meant working together to make the world better, having a home, sharing thoughts and feelings and leftover stir fry, and curling up on the couch to watch ridiculous action films together.

And sometimes, when the day had been especially tiring, it meant falling asleep on that couch with their arms around each other while people pretended to punch each other on TV.

* * *

_Quiet…_

Tired legs walked as if on their own accord past the lights, into the dark.

_Burn._

_Quiet._

…should have tried to find… whatever else that could get around faster.

_Where is everyone?_

Should go faster… or maybe quieter…

_They left but we’re still here._

…stop floating. get home.

_Burn… Bbuuurrrnnn…_

_Why are we alone?_

No. No home. Too…

The sky was too dark and wide above the lights. Too heavy. A star was missing.

_Help us find…_

_Burn._

_Brighter._

_Brighter._

_Burn…_

…couldn’t stop now. Home was right there, somewhere. The lights were warm. Like the fire that had been lost.

_Burnbrighterfindhome_


	2. Embers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lio meets new people. It's not fun, but sometimes social discomfort needs to be endured for the sake of gaining allies and information.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your feedback! I was originally going to make this chapter a bit shorter but then decided to move some stuff originally meant for chapter 3 to this because it was structurally better, but now I kinda regret that I didn't put a bit more effort to the first chapter structure-wise. Oh, well, we can call the first chapter like a shorter sneak-peek chapter to see if anyone even would want to read this or something. :D
> 
> EDIT 1 August: Added a flashback to the beginning. Also moved the first cryptic flamespeak to the first chapter, and adjusted the second flamespeak-part to not imply that the POV-character is looking for anything. Also Lio doesn't see anyone in the alley at the end, but he still possibly hears distant flamewhispers. Also fixed some errors and some wording.

_There was a new person in the house. He was maybe in his late thirties, but something had worn down his face much more than time alone could. That wasn’t anything new. Most people here had seen too much. This had been a place for the Burnish, after all, already back when they had needed to hide. And some still hid, even after everything had started to change._

_He was sitting in a chair near a wall, alone, watching everyone with some wary curiosity. It was normal for newcomers to act like this, linger at the sidelines until someone eventually gathered their courage and went to say hello. This time it was Old Eon who did it. Old Eon wasn’t very old, to be fair, but he was fairly old for a Burnish who had lived on the run. Many hadn’t even made it to their thirties. Nowadays, they had more of a chance to live. The Burnish hadn’t been burning for nearly a year now. But somehow Old Eon was still Old Eon in this place, because old habits die hard, and Eon didn’t really hate that name._

_“Hey,” he said._

_The man looked up._

_“Hey.”_

_“Name’s Eon. People call me Old Eon, but you can choose whichever.”_

_The man smiled._

_“I think I’ll stick to Eon. Makes_ me _feel less old, considering we’re probably around the same age.”_

_“Sure. You got a name?”_

_“Yes… it’s Felix,” the man said, in the slightly uncertain tone of a man who wasn’t really named Felix._

_“You got a reason to not say your real name?” Eon said, because he wasn’t going to judge, but he_ was _curious. And a bit wary of everyone. Came with the life._

_“Yes,” Felix said, “I… I’m trying to forget things. Everything about my life, really.”_

_“Oh, I get it,” Eon said and sat down next to Felix, “I really do. Most of us would like to forget. Except maybe we don’t, you know? It’s like… if we just let it go, then that’s an insult to all of us who’ve suffered and turned to ashes.”_

_He chuckled._

_“Sorry. This is a bit of a morbid welcome.”_

_Felix smiled a hollowed out smile, and his eyes tried to spark._

_“That’s fine,” he said, “Sometimes, morbid is all we can do.”_

* * *

A lot could happen in two years. Especially if something really weird and earth-shattering happened before that. Two years ago, Promepolis had been in ruins with a giant horrible spaceship crashed right in the middle. And now, things were almost normal again, except it was a new normal everyone had to get used to. There was a new council ruling Promepolis, and a lot of the people who had been driven out of their homes by hate had returned. In theory, everything should have been getting better. But most things were still messy and confusing. Galo Thymos hated it. When a world was saved, it should be _okay_ afterwards! Sure, he knew that it didn’t always work like that, but he could _hope_. At the very least people could work together to make things better. It should be so _easy_ , but apparently it wasn’t. Some days Galo wanted nothing more than to climb up somewhere where everyone could hear him and shout at the top of his lungs for people to be friendly. That, or punch the world again and again until it realigned and people stopped being so difficult.

Oh, man, that would be _awesome_. Especially if he asked Lio to come along. Punching the world wouldn’t be the same without him.

Galo Thymos was a simple, straightforward person. He saw a problem, he did everything he could to fix it. He saw someone hurting someone else, he stepped in. He got an idea, he said it out loud. All that got him in trouble sometimes, like when he said something stupid or ran into a burning building without a plan that made sense, but that was how he was. He _refused_ to be anything other than what he felt was right. It had felt right to become a firefighter and save people after his own parents had died in a fire and he had been saved. It felt right to stand against what was wrong. It felt right to be a passionately helpful idiot, and it felt right to broadcast that passion to the world with sirens, slideshows, and a bit of flexing (he had _worked_ for these muscles!).

It also felt right to wake up on a couch before his alarm clock, with an ex-arsonist sandwiched between the back of the couch and Galo’s side. Lio was small, but even tucked into Galo’s side, he seemed so strong. This close, Galo could almost feel the fire inside him, and he remembered what it had been like when they had saved the world and combined their souls. Galo blinked himself properly awake and was careful not to move even when his energy told him to jump up and do stretches. And even when his back told him how their couch was not the best place to be sleeping in.

He glanced at Lio, who was still sleeping with his arm loosely draped over Galo’s waist. Lio had been so tired that he hadn’t even changed out of his day clothes last night. Almost without thinking, Galo wrapped his own arm a bit tighter around Lio when his thoughts strayed to the missing Burnish. That whole mess _definitely_ wasn’t right. Galo didn’t really like worrying, so he usually didn’t. He liked to believe that things would be okay. But lately he had noticed that he _was_ worrying a bit, despite everything. Sure, he was worried about the missing person reports in general, because no one should get hurt in Galo’s opinion, but he had to admit that there was a more personal worry to it as well. Whenever Lio’s day at work got longer than it was supposed to, or whenever Lio went out alone for any other reason, Galo fretted, in his own way. It mostly meant a lot of foot-tapping, and messaging Lio with random, stupid jokes so that Lio would reply with an annoyed emoji and Galo would know that everything was okay. And even then it sometimes wasn’t enough. Burnish were going missing again, and if someone really wanted to hurt the Burnish as a group, Lio was a prime target as their former leader and their current face.

Sure, Galo knew that Lio could take care of himself even now when he didn’t have epic fire powers. He was smart, quick, brave, and knew how to punch out a guy thrice his size. But… things could always happen, and… well, Galo wasn’t sure what he’d do without Lio in his life at this point. He tried to remind himself that not a lot of _things_ had happened yet, and he, Lio, and others were working pretty smartly with the search operation. Galo should probably just do what he did best: focus on the present and the good in it.

He wondered if he could extract himself from Lio and the couch without waking Lio up. Lio was usually a ridiculously light sleeper, thanks to his years as a fugitive who needed to be always alert. But now he looked so worn out that he might not jump up and reach for the nearest sharp object on instinct if Galo shifted a little. The missing person cases had kept Lio awake a lot, but he always insisted that he got his sleep whenever Galo asked. Even after two years, there were still so many icy, defensive layers around him. It made Galo a bit sad, but he supposed that sometimes slow progress was the only kind that worked, and at least there _was_ progress. In the beginning, Lio had been reluctant to accept help from anyone outside of his own people, and things like falling asleep without setting up a watch had been out of the question. Now, at least there were moments of peace like this. And more and more smiles. Those were definitely good.

Galo slowly let his legs slide to the floor. They were halfway there already, because the couch was too small for him to completely stretch out. He managed to wriggle his upper body halfway off as well before Lio snapped awake, leaped over the back of the couch in a move that would have gained decent points in a gymnastics competition, and landed into a crouch.

“Hey, it’s okay!” Galo immediately raised his hands, “It’s just me! I was getting up.”

Lio blinked slowly from behind sleep-ruffled bangs and then straightened his posture.

“Right. Good morning.”

“You can go back to sleep,” Galo said, “It’s only like… five-thirty.”

“Is it?”

“Yeah. You should probably move to the bed, though. The couch is still not nice to spines.”

“Or I could see if the search parties have found anything. I can get a good head start on planning new search routes before I need to go to a meeting.”

“LioooOOoooOoo, you can rest more!” Galo whined while he haphazardly shovelled coffee into the coffee maker.

“Don’t use that tone with me, Thymos.”

“Does it work?”

“No.”

Galo snapped the coffee maker on and let his upper body slump on the kitchen counter.

“Okay, fine. What’s this meeting you’ve got now?”

Lio shrugged his shoulders.

“Alixia Karis wants to meet me.”

“Oh,” Galo said, “Who’s Alixia?”

“Remember when I told you that a fairly high profile Burnish was moving here?”

“Yeah, you mentioned that.”

“Well, that’s Alixia. She lived in the southern parts of the continent, part of a pretty successful, old money family. She awakened as a Burnish in her twenties, stole a good chunk of her family’s funds when her parents tried to turn her over to the authorities, went underground, and used her money to establish secret safehouses for Burnish around the continent.”

“Really?” Galo asked, “Badass.”

“Yes,” Lio said, “I stayed in one of those safehouses once, soon after I awakened. I wasn’t there long, but it did help me. I had a safe place where to think about what I wanted to do with my life when I… couldn’t go home.”

He smiled softly.

“I suppose I should thank her, at least. And now I can.”

“So you haven’t talked with her before?” Galo asked.

“No. I had my own operations, and I didn’t want to risk exposing others who protected the Burnish by contacting them without a very good reason. But now… well, everything’s in the open, and she reached out. She’s now back as a legitimate businesswoman and openly involved in charity. She bought one of the old Burnish shelters here and is planning to turn it into something for the community.”

“That sounds cool.”

“It’s not a bad idea, no,” Lio agreed, “She probably wants to see me to start working together with the local Burnish community, and possibly because of the… press.”

He said the last word with some contempt, and Galo couldn’t really fault him for that. It turned out that saving the world made them interesting to a whole bunch of people. And while Galo didn’t mind posing for the crowd, he did mind the invasive reporters who wanted to know every bit about their lives and people who wanted to just parade them around like some badass trophies. He also minded that it all seemed to make Lio really annoyed.

The coffee maker beeped. Galo poured two cups after a questioning look at Lio, who nodded and snatched the other cup as soon as it was full. Lio sat on the kitchen counter and cradled the mug between his hands.

“Is your shift starting soon?” he asked.

“Soon-ish. It’s probably gonna be boring, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make for the safety of the public!”

Galo lived in an eternal conflict of being an adrenaline junkie firefighter who loved the excitement of the job and also knew that hoping for things to catch fire would be very unprofessional and wrong. Oh, well, it could be worse. His burning soul could also be used to save cats from trees and help with the rebuilding that was still going on in the city. It turns out that trashing a city in a fight to save the world had repercussions.

“Also,” Galo said between gulps of coffee, “Lucia is making something new, and I can help her test that stuff, so that’s gonna be cool, at least. Oh, if we have a _really_ quiet day, I can ask Aina to fly over the city a bit and look for the missing people!”

“I can’t ask you to-“

“You didn’t ask,” Galo said, “But I’ll still do it if you want. I wanna help you with this more. And I’m sure the rest of the Burning Rescue will too.”

Lio sighed.

“Well, if you insist. I just don’t want… you know what? Never mind. Thank you.”

Galo beamed at him.

“Anytime.”

* * *

After Galo had gone to work, Lio took a shower and changed from his yesterday’s clothes to fresh ones. He opted for one of his neatest ruffled shirts and the pants with the least buckles, just to make a slightly softer and more business-like impression in case Alixia Karis cared about that sort of thing. He was halfway through a breakfast sandwich when he got a call he had been waiting for. After the Burnish had started to go missing, Lio had immediately made inquiries about former Foresight Foundation workers who were out of prison and still in the area. He had especially focused on former scientists and those who had been higher up in the corporate food chain, because they were more likely to share Kray Foresight’s monstrous ideals. They might also have acquaintances and resources that hadn’t yet been found out and that they could use to make Burnish disappear. Sure, that might not be what was actually happening, but it was a bit too likely to just dismiss even without any evidence towards it. Now his people had managed to secure a meeting with one of the former workers, who apparently had information. It seemed that his day out was going to get longer than anticipated today too.

He called his former Mad Burnish generals, Meis and Gueira, to ask them how their search had gone. They had found nothing, which was not surprising. Lio told them to take a rest and then be ready for a late evening meeting with a possible lead, possible enemy. No one complained, everyone did their thing. The thought that they would die if they didn’t do everything they could was still set deep in all of them, even after the two years of tentatively being accepted back into society. It was sad, but at least in this situation it could be true, so Lio was just yet again grateful of the people he had the honour to work with.

A couple of hours later he took his bike and set out towards the address he had been given. He had called a few more of ex-Mad Burnish to be on the lookout outside the building just in case. He still never met any new people especially on official business without backup, for the same reason that he never went anywhere without a small arsenal of concealed knives on his person. The saddest part was that sometimes, both blades and backup had actually been _needed_. Lio hoped this wouldn’t be one of those times. He already had enough things to worry about.

The building was one of the shiny office skyscrapers, not the fanciest one, but still fancier than Lio had expected. Its windows stared down at him from the gleaming, white walls, as did the people in uniform who stood at the door and demanded to know why he was there. After a brief exchange of IDs and motives, as well as a call to presumably Alixia Karis herself, he was led inside and into an elevator that was all glass and reminded him vaguely of an observation cell he had seen in one of the Burnish facilities he had once had to break out of. He closed his eyes and listened to the elevator’s quiet humming to block out any possible memories. Thankfully, Alixia’s office was situated in a corridor that was mostly panelled walls and granite floor tiles, a far cry from any dark facility. He knocked on a door and waited between the two guards until the door was opened, and the middle-aged woman standing behind it nodded at the guards to leave.

Lio had seen Alixia Karis in pictures and even on TV once. She was softer and more relaxed in person, but still had a carefully proper aura of one who had tried her best to fit into a role she wasn’t sure was entirely hers. She had put her purple-black hair up into a thick ponytail, and she was wearing a simple, dark blue suit. When she offered her hand and Lio extended his, not touching but imagining a tiny spark between their hands, the properness melted into a genuine smile. Burnish handshakes didn’t actually work anymore, but they often still used them, maybe out of respect and maybe out of a desperate attempt to cling to a culture that had been largely based around a fire they had lost.

“Hello,” Ms. Karis said, “And welcome, Lio Fotia. I’m so glad you could meet me at such a short notice. I’m Alixia Karis, but you may call me just Alixia.”

“It’s good to meet you,” Lio said, “I’ve heard some things about you and your operations.”

“Mostly good things, I hope,” Alixia chuckled, “I’ve heard quite a bit about you too. But that’s not surprising. _Everyone_ has heard about you.”

She smiled fondly.

“To think… the last time I saw you in person was when you were just a child, hiding in one of my safehouses. You were so small. And look at you now! You’ve grown into such a strong, beautiful young man!”

Lio had had to deal with many kinds of people in his life. Most had been different flavours of horrible human garbage. Some had been kind. Some had been annoying or confusing. But this… vaguely motherly air was something entirely new. And more than a little creepy, all things considered. Lio didn’t really know what to do with any of this.

“Oh?” he said warily, “So… we’ve met before? I don’t remember you.”

“I’m not surprised. I was doing rounds in the area and didn't stay for long. You were young and scared, and we didn’t really have many opportunities to really talk before you stopped crying flames, packed your things, and sneaked out with some of the older kids.”

Was this how people with families felt when their older relatives dug out their baby pictures and showed them to strangers? Here, there were no photos nor strangers to show them to, but Lio and Alixia were basically strangers, so maybe that counted. Lio felt his cheeks heat up a bit in embarrassment, and his eyes flickered to his shoes for a second while he mumbled:

“Ah, yes. I… did.”

“Whatever happened to the others you left with?” Alixia asked wistfully, “They were such good youngsters as well.”

“They died,” Lio said with the solemn tones of one who had had to accept death as a part of life long ago.

“Oh. I’m sorry,” Alixia sighed, “It’s too often how these stories end. We tried to keep the young ones in the safehouses for as long as we could, but you were one of those who managed to give us the slip. I tried to keep tabs on those who left us, but usually they vanished or ended up in ashes.”

“I know the feeling,” Lio said quietly, “I… thank you for everything you have done for the Burnish.”

“I should be the one thanking _you_ ,” Alixia said, “I invited you here because I was hoping to establish a connection with you. Well, the Burnish community in general, but they seem to trust you and see you as a leader of sorts.”

“They seem to, yes,” Lio said, “But officially we have a council of representatives. I can put you in touch with them, if you aren’t already.”

“That would be lovely,” Alixia said, “Also, I am going to set up a small charity dinner to get more funding for the new support service I am planning to turn the Burnish shelter into. I will be in touch about that as well.”

“Sounds good,” Lio said and then waited for Alixia to continue. But she didn’t. She was simply watching, “Um… was this all?”

“Well… yes,” Alixia said, “I know this was brief, but some things need to be done face to face, I think. And I wanted to meet you.”

“Well, you did.”

“Yes, I did,” Alixia’s smile faltered, “Actually, I also wanted to lay all my cards on the table. From the past and the present.”

“Was that supposed to sound ominous?” Lio asked and couldn’t help taking a look around the office to check for escape routes – as if he hadn’t already mapped them out in his head when he first stepped into the room, “Because it did.”

Alixia sat down behind her desk and pressed her palms together underneath her chin. Her nails had been painted Promare pink, the shade too accurate to be a coincidence. She seemed to weigh her options, but at this point it was a bit too late to back out of whatever she was about to say. She smiled weakly.

“Nothing ominous, I promise. I told you I’ve been keeping tabs on people I have sheltered. I hope you don’t find that too invasive. I felt especially obligated to look out for the young ones who had been orphaned or abandoned after their Burnish awakening.”

Lio’s hands had clenched into fists. If he hadn’t been wearing gloves, his nails would have already broken the skin. It tended to happen whenever he had to think about his parents. No, not really parents. Just spineless cowards who had abandoned their child when he had spontaneously combusted and needed them the most. He suddenly found it much harder to breathe with the anger clogging up his throat.

“Okay,” he whispered, “What am I… what am I supposed to do with this information?”

“Whatever you like. I just wanted you to know. Whenever one of the young ones disappeared or died, I felt like I had failed. So I was very relieved when you resurfaced here after years of your more elusive work.”

“I… well, thank you, I suppose,” Lio said, “But whatever you think you’re obligated to do… if you think you are somehow responsible for my well-being, _don’t_ bother. I’ve taken care of myself for this long. I hope tracking down whoever has briefly lived in your hideouts isn’t just why you’re here. We should both worry about the other Burnish, and about this city becoming a better place for everyone.”

He was maybe being a bit too prickly, but he didn’t really know how else to react. He wasn’t _that_ bothered by mild stalking – okay, so maybe he was – but he definitely didn’t want to be… _mothered_ by this stranger. And he was still feeling angry from the mention of his parents. It was an old anger, already simmered down to a dull ache, but he still didn’t like thinking about it. Thankfully, Alixia seemed to understand where her boundaries were. Finally.

“Yes, I agree,” she said, “Well, I’m looking forward to our cooperation.”

Lio thanked her and turned to leave, but then he stopped and glanced back over his shoulder.

“Ms. Karis-“

“Please, I told you to call me Alixia.”

“Alixia, have you heard anything about Burnish going missing?”

“I can’t say I have,” Alixia frowned, “Has something happened? Are people still not done with _that_?”

“I don’t know yet, but I’m looking into it. I can give you a list of the missing. Can you tell me if you hear anything?”

“I admire your dedication,” Alixia said, “But isn’t this the work of the police?”

“A lot of the Burnish still don’t trust the police.”

“I suppose that’s true. But still… you’re…. You shouldn’t take on everyone’s burdens.”

Lio bristled at the patronising tone and sent an icy glare Alixia’s way.

“Can you call me if you hear anything or not?”

Alixia smiled again, sadly this time.

“I suppose I can.”

“Good. We’ll be in touch.”

He marched out of the office and the building as gracefully as he could with lingering anger and discomfort creeping like ice down his spine.

* * *

_Why_ would they run away?

_Burn…_

Why would they just leave?

_Findhomeburnbright._

They were just trying to help! To give them what they deserved.

They were probably going towards the city. But why? The city was cold. Not right. It didn’t really _see_ them. It hadn’t _wanted_ them until they had been broken and moulded into its shapes. Squares that stacked neatly together.

Bullshit.

_Burn._

_Brighter._

_Find._

_Findfindfind…_

* * *

_The Sad Wolves Pub_ was small a tavern struggling at the edges of Promepolis, somehow spared from the destruction two years prior, but not from dodgy clientele. The walls were cracked after drunken fights over petty things, the floor worn down after so many questionable liquids mopped from it. Windows had glass that detached in a single sheet because it was safer for people that were inevitably thrown through them at least once a month. When the bar closed, metal shutters were pulled down in front of them. Shadows were heavy and inky because of sickly lights, or simply because a place like that needed dramatic contrast. The parking space in front of the building was mostly empty except for motorbikes. Tonight, it was introduced to three new bikes, all stylish black, pink and cyan. Sometime later, the pub’s battered door was swung open and three figures stepped in. They were all clad in mostly black, with vicious-looking helmets under their arms. Two tall ones flanked the short one in the middle like bodyguards. None of them looked like they would win any arm-wrestling matches, but no one wanted to mess with them anyway. People took one look at them, some recognising them as ex-arsonists, and some just seeing that they had the hardened glares of ones who had seen some shit and probably had knives hidden in their clothes, and turned back to their business.

The bartender, a man who had also seen some shit and all kinds of customers, didn’t bat an eye when the three walked up to him. The one on the left studied him critically from under a sleek, dark blue curtain of hair. The one on the right, whose hair looked like a volcano and who had the most studs in his clothes, glanced around as if to challenge everyone to stay the hell out of their business, as some of the more aggressive customers tended to do. Then the middle one spoke with a voice that was surprisingly deep for someone so young and delicate:

“Do you have a patron by the name of Carlo here?”

“That’s me,” said an older man from a corner table. He was hunched over a row of whiskey glasses, “I’m glad you wanted to meet me.”

The three all gave the man different varieties of tense looks before sitting down. These kinds of occurrences weren’t that rare in _The Sad Wolves_ , so no one still paid much attention to them. Not that any possible eavesdropper could get much out of their talks anyway. Everyone around the table knew that there were some things that shouldn’t be said out loud.

Carlo was a husk of a man, as many riddled with immense guilt tended to be. He had dark circles around his eyes after staying up for too many nights thinking about what he had done. He would have elicited sympathy if he hadn’t worked for Foresight Foundation, and it was hard for Lio or any other Burnish to think anything nice about former Foresight goons. Still, he had wanted to talk, and so far there was no indication that this was a trap. Sure, meeting in a generic pub in a bad neighbourhood was a textbook red flag, but there were so few patrons in here that Lio and his generals, not to mention the people he had stationed right outside once again, could take them on with ease. Unless they had guns. But they all looked genuinely too drunk to shoot straight.

It didn’t feel like a trap. It felt more like Carlo had just found it too difficult to leave his cheap whiskey and a familiar table. And maybe he wanted to have some people around in case Lio, Meis, and Gueira turned out to be out for revenge instead of information.

“I’ll do whatever I can to be of assistance,” Carlo said, “What I did… I wasn’t even that important, didn’t know much, but… knowing what it contributed to is… enough.”

“You’re being friendly with us now,” said Meis from Lio’s left, voice straining to sound polite, “That probably counts for something at this point. As long as you really _are_ gonna give us a hand.”

“Of course,” Carlo nodded vigorously and passed a piece of paper over the table. Lio took a quick look at the names on it before pocketing it, “I’m sure most of them… us… we’ve got nothing to do with anything weird lately. The bad ones are still… well, locked up and not causing problems. People like me, on the other hand, we just want to either forget or atone. Or both.”

He toasted no one with a half-empty whiskey glass.

“I guess I’m doing both here,” he said, “Good luck, you three.”

“Thank you,” Lio said.

Behind them, glass cracked when someone’s drink was dropped. Someone cursed, and the bartender let out a warning growl. Meis glanced over his shoulder.

“Well, I think that’s our cue to leave. That looks like a stereotypical bar fight about to happen.”

They all stood when someone raised their voice. Gueira ducked to dodge an olive on a cocktail stick that sailed across the air. It was almost embedded into his red hair. He wrinkled his nose.

“Okay, so stuff’s flying, but that’s not really a proper brawl. I mean, have you ever even been in a bar fight?”

“Like, three times,” Meis said while he pushed the door open and they stepped into the darkening evening, “No… wait, four. You were in that last one too.”

“Oh, yeah, that was a rough one. Still, this- are those guys trying to steal our bikes?”

“Oh, shit,” Meis said and quickened his steps as two burly men in tacky, ripped vests straightened from where they had been suspiciously checking out Gueira’s motorcycle, “Hey, dude! What’s up?”

“These your bikes?” one of the men turned with his hands up, “Oh, shit, sorry, I… wait. Seriously? Man, and I was almost threatened for a second. The kid even old enough to drive?”

Lio sighed when the man smirked as if that line had been a stroke of genius never heard before. It was too pathetic to really be insulting.

“We’re not interested in having a fight with you,” Lio said, “Just go away, and we won’t have a problem.”

“Wait,” the other one whispered, “I think these are the pyros from the news. Remember? The crazy biker gang?”

“These twigs? Nah, can’t be!”

“Uh, yeah, _can_ be!” Gueira snapped, “So back off!”

Lio supposed they should have expected something like this from this neighbourhood. He raised his hand in a placating manner, though it was actually a sign for his hidden people to stay put. No need to spring an all-out attack on a couple of bullies.

The bigger and louder of the men didn’t seem too perturbed by any of them, and he actually took a step forward.

“You know what? Why should you parade around with such nice stuff after burning down our city, huh?”

The bikes were pretty much the only nice things they owned, but this man wouldn’t care, nor did he even need to know. Lio crossed his arms and glared. It actually almost worked, and the man faltered for about a second before his face twisted into a sneer and he pushed Lio in the shoulder harshly enough for him to stumble back a step.

“Get out of my face, pyro bitch, or-!”

That was about as far as he got before Gueira latched onto him from behind and pulled him back.

“You don’t touch the Boss, meathead!”

“Didn’t we just go out to _avoid_ a bar fight?” Lio asked, and Meis shrugged.

“Well, this is a parking space fight, so it’s different. Kick his ass, Gueira!”

Lio stepped aside when the other one lunged at him. He raised his hands again, not because he felt that these generic jerks should be allowed to just push people around, but because he was trying to prove to people that no, Mad Burnish were _not_ crazy, violent gang members who should be feared because of their past.

“Stop!” he yelled, “All of you! This is ridiculous!”

He ducked when the man tried to punch him again, let his helmet fall to the ground and used his momentum to grab the man’s arm and throw him over his hip. The jerk had swung too far and was already unbalanced, doing most of Lio’s work for him, and what Lio lacked in reach and raw physical strength he more than made up for with speed, technique, and a low centre of gravity. The man let out a surprised yelp and went down like a sack of potatoes. Meis was quick to kick the man onto his stomach, press a knee at the man’s back and lock his arms behind him.

“Okay, so we _can_ still count this as self-defence, right, Boss?” Meis said, “Just in case someone asks- neeeever mind, Gueira just suplexed that other guy.”

“Don’t start, man!” Gueira shouted as he got up from under a now very dazed attacker, “It was too awesome to be a crime! Besides, the guy’s _fine_!”

Lio pinched the bridge of his nose and then crouched down next to the one he and Meis had subdued.

“Did you attack randomly?” he asked, “Did you really not know whose bikes you were stealing?”

“What? Yeah no! We didn’t know!” the man wheezed out.

“So you don’t go around systematically attacking Burnish?”

“No! We don’t even hate those guys, man, we just hate your stupid pyro gang!”

Lio sighed again. It was one of those days, it seemed. He opened his mouth to again kindly ask these people to fuck off, but then a spark of pain behind his eyes made him wince.

_B…rn… B… BbBbbuuurrrr…nnn…_

“What?” he whispered, and everyone else – even the men on the ground – looked at him oddly. One of the attackers said something, but Lio didn’t hear him. He looked around, at alleys that faded into angular darkness somewhere behind the pub. There was no one here but them and his own people. And yet…

His eyes stung, and he didn’t know why. A sliver of white noise slithered into his brain, achingly familiar yet… different. Strange. _Wrong_.

_L…lLlet… HhhE…Lll…p…_

They weren’t really words, just fiery hum and crackle with thoughts behind them, which his brain interpreted as words. He hadn’t heard the flames whispering after the Promare had left. Of course he hadn’t. They were gone, away in their home dimension. But this feeling reminded him of that time. He had been good at listening to the Promare, so good that he could sometimes hear even the flames of his Burnish brethren. And his own flames had always been loud, his constant companions even when everyone else had been gone.

This was like back when someone newly awakened had unknowingly let their flames scream so loudly that Lio could hear fragments of them half a mile away. Or someone sending a distress call that should have been mostly just smoke signals, but somehow the smoke had carried wishes and not-really-noise with it. But why… _how_ would-?

“Boss?” Meis whispered, and Lio blinked back into the reality of cold concrete and colder glares. He fixed a glare of his own at the man in front of him.

“We’ll give you and your friend one more chance to leave,” he said, “If you do anything stupid, you’ll end up spending the night in jail, probably even more bruised than you already are. Got it?”

The man weighed his options. Then he nodded.

“Fine. Got it.”

Lio stood.

“Good. Gueira, Meis, let them up.”

His generals glanced at each other.

“You sure, Boss?” Gueira asked.

“Yes. But stay on your guard in case they are idiots.”

It turned out that the men were not _complete_ idiots, because they cut their losses and walked away with only a couple of rude gestures aimed their way. Meis and Gueira again positioned themselves on each side of Lio, a habit they still hadn’t wanted to shake even when they were technically no longer a gang. Meis nudged Lio’s shoulder.

“Hey, Boss? What was that about? You spacing out, I mean.”

“I…”

Lio listened, but there were no whispers. Maybe it had just been a memory. Or a flashback. He sometimes had those.

“I don’t know,” he said.

The darkness of the alley was mocking him, featureless and suffocating and cold. He took a deep breath and went to pick up his helmet.

“We got what we wanted. Let’s go, everyone.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realise that the beginning of this story is gonna be very Lio-centric, because he IS the one with the most resources and time to actually solve this case, but I do want to progress this towards the deuteragonist-situation the film has, with both Lio and Galo having pretty equally important roles.
> 
> Also because the original film was kinda all about intentionally and self-awaredly shoving in narrative devices and cliches for fun, I'm gonna do the same! Probably not WELL, but I'll try.
> 
> I hope you enjoy! Have a good time and stay safe, everyone!


	3. Smoulder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The case may be progressing, but it leaves everyone with more questions than answers. The world is a cold, dark place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I at one point say that my brain had written the entire plot? Well, what I meant to say I had the bricks of this story house but not the mortar to tie them together. So I had to do some intense brainstorming to figure out what the heck I'm doing. :D It should be somewhat together now all the way to the end. I again thank everyone who has read this story even when I'm floundering and trying to figure this out.
> 
> Also hey, I edited the first chapter to change the timeline a bit. The Burnish started to go missing three months ago, and Phedra Deo disappeared five days before the first chapter.
> 
> EDIT August 1: Added a flashback to the beginning. Changed the timeline between Cybil meeting the mystery person and BR3 getting an alarm to three days instead of one week. Also the mystery person doesn't tell Cybil to come with them or anything about getting stronger, and they also don't do any more vigilante work after saving Cybil, but instead just stay in hiding. I also fixed some wording and some errors.

_“I’ve been thinking of maybe going to Promepolis soon,” said Old Eon._

_Felix looked up at him. He was quiet and mostly still watching, but Eon liked him. He had a spark, something a lot of the Burnish had lost when their flames had disappeared and they had been left with only scraps of identity and a world that still mostly hated them._

_“Why’d you go there?” Felix asked, “Isn’t that the place with the worst memories?”_

_“I don’t have memories of that place, really,” Eon said, “Never been. I’ve been underground, in places like this, most of the last decade.”_

_He had once lived in a small town, kept a low profile with his mostly Burnish family until everything had come crashing down. It had been a stupid thing. He had got into a fight and sent a guy in the hospital with third degree burns when he’d lost control. Then he had run to protect his family. But his sister and nephew had been discovered anyway and had to run too, and by that time they were too far apart to make it together before..._

_“My family’s there,” Eon said, “My sister, Nia, and my nephew, Jace. I haven’t seen them in a while.”_

_“Why haven’t you seen each other?”_

_“I ran first, they ran the other way,” Eon sighed, “They ended up in that Foresight’s hell engine, I heard. It was… unfair that I was sitting here while they suffered.”_

_Felix was quiet, as he was whenever Foresight was mentioned. Again, not surprising. Most Burnish didn’t want to hear anything about that bastard. He clumsily patted Eon’s shoulder. Eon managed a smile._

_“At least they survived. They’re rebuilding a life in the city. Probably to spite everyone who wanted to use that damn place to destroy us. You can’t keep us Morados down, I’ve always thought.”_

_“Seems that way.”_

_“I’ve called them sometimes,” Eon said wistfully, “It’s weird how we can just… have phones now. Nia and Jace are recovering nicely. They’re strong. But it’d be great to actually see them.”_

_Felix listened and stared at people who were sitting around in the common area of the safehouse. The place had been slowly emptying as people dared to venture outside to build new lives or go back to old ones. Some stayed, mostly those who were still afraid, or who didn’t have enough to start with. People who were still falling in the cracks._

_“Do you think you’ll ever leave?” Eon asked._

_Felix shrugged his shoulders._

_“Maybe. Except… maybe I feel like I should do something here first.”_

_“I know what you mean. There’s mostly just people who don’t have anything else here anymore. Leaving feels… almost unfair.”_

_“Yes,” Felix said, “I’ve watched the people here. They are people without purpose, I think. What do you think they’d need in order to find that again?”_

_“Who knows?” Eon said, “The flames were a big part of all of us. Filling that hole they left is… difficult.”_

_Felix hummed, deep in thought._

_“I’ve been thinking about what you said,” he looked up at Eon, “About forgetting not being the best option.”_

_“Yeah?” Eon said, “And?”_

_Felix paused and looked almost longingly when the house’s owner walked into the room. It was one of her occasional checkup visits. She looked out of place in the dark, comfortable but shabby rooms. She smiled fondly like a mother, but she had an aura fit for a queen._

_“I’ve just been thinking, is all,” Felix mumbled._

_The queen looked at them and smiled again._

* * *

Promepolis was buzzing already very early in the morning, even on a Sunday. Most of the lights were always on, always blocking out the stars and wasting power. People were rushing to their jobs, or to their homes from a night shift. Even a lot of people who were still mostly waking up were often restless. It tended to happen in a freshly post-near-apocalyptic world.

In a spacious house lined with white panels and large windows, former Foresight Foundation scientist Heris Ardebit looked out with a cup of heavily spiked coffee in hand. The cameras and sensors monitoring her house arrest buzzed threateningly when she strayed too close to the door, though she had no intention to leave. She was going to have a visit from her sister, Aina, later today. But before that, she could try to forget what she had done, just for a moment, before she remembered again and tried to make things better. If by nothing else, then by trying to find out all the still undiscovered things Kray Foresight might have done to the people he had hurt so much. She had a lot of files to read, and a lot more to be unearthed. She also had plenty of books on all the things she had thought she had known, but now didn’t know how to use for fixing what she had broken. Maybe once her sentence had been served, she would be ready. To help. To do whatever it took to atone.

In an office near the centre of the town, lights flicked on. A former Burnish turned businesswoman was doing an early morning shift.

On the streets, gleaming black boots thudded quietly on the concrete before vaulting over a fence and climbing up onto a roof. Thud turned into metallic clang. Eyes under a helmet closed and tried to see through the noise and into sparks that had gone missing. Hands tingled, a memory of last night’s fight still firing them up. Literally. Deep breath. A stab of pain. Don’t let it through. Not now.

In Burning Rescue 3 headquarters, the technician and genius of Unit 3 slouched in front of a jungle of technology while chugging down her third bottle of energy drink. Her blonde and pink hair had nearly fallen out of the buns she had put them up into, but she didn't care at that moment. She tinkered with a mechanical arm for one of her new mechs, and then wondered if she should adjust the heat-vision drones that she kept flying around the city almost at all times. One of them had registered a small flare-up, but when she had switched back to regular vision, there had been nothing. Weird.

In a small apartment in a building right next to Burning Rescue HQ, Galo Thymos was having one of his rare days off, which meant that Lio Fotia had woken up to a less hurried coffee-brewing ritual than usual. And to the smell of vegetable oils and tomato sauce. Apparently it was a pizza morning. They had happened sometimes ever since Lio had moved in with Galo, but Lio still didn’t fully comprehend them. Just the idea that there was someone out there, making junk food early in the morning, ready to deliver it to a house that he lived in was… strange. One of those domestic things he still tried to wrap his head around.

Last night had been rough. When Lio had finally got back, Galo had been home from a long day at work and already asleep in their bed. Now he was up and moving and smiled at Lio, who walked out of the bedroom without changing out of his T-shirt and shorts and settled into their couch. Galo was almost constantly moving. He had too much energy for a human body. If he had ever been Burnish, he would have been one of those who were almost constantly on fire. But he wasn’t, so he was simply just projecting an aura of metaphorical fire everywhere he went. Now that fire honed in on Lio in the form of an excitable “How was your yesterday?” as soon as Lio sat down. It was actually pretty endearing, especially when asked while zooming about the kitchenette and the living room, putting down coffee cups and occasionally stopping at the pizza box.

“… so wait,” Galo jabbed a half-eaten slice of pizza towards Lio, “you went to a bad guy bar _and_ got into a fight with bike thieves? How was your boring meeting-day way more exciting than my firefighting day?”

“Didn’t you just say that you discovered an old house under some rubble in the city centre?” Lio said and shifted slightly so that he wouldn’t get hit by a stray tomato, “That sounds pretty exciting.”

“Well, yeah, but it was an empty house,” Galo shrugged, “Didn’t even have mysterious items we could’ve returned to the owner for a teary flashback from their childhood or anything. Hey, how about that Alixia-lady? Did something cool happen when you went to see her too?”

“No,” Lio said and fidgeted uncomfortably, “It was more… weird.”

“Weird how?”

“She told me she had been following what the people who left the safehouses had been up to afterwards.”

“Ookay…” Galo finally sat down, now listening intently while his pizza slice was dangerously close to dripping sauce on his pants, “Was it because she was worried or for a weirder reason?”

“She seemed to feel somehow responsible for everyone who had ever been in one of her safehouses, including me,” Lio pulled his feet up on the couch and wrapped his arms around his knees, “It was very patronising. And creepy.”

“Oh,” Galo said, “But don’t you do that too?”

“Excuse me?”

“You feel like you’re responsible for all the Burnish here.”

“Well, yes, but I’m hopefully not creepy about it.”

“Nah, you’re just passionate, which is good,” Galo said and looked at their half-empty pizza box in contemplation, “So what especially made her creepy?”

“She talked about remembering me from the safehouse, back when I was a kid,” Lio wrinkled his nose, “And I think she was trying to be… motherly?”

“Oh,” Galo said, “Okay, yeah. That _can_ be a bit weird.”

An oddly jagged silence fell between them. They didn’t talk about families often. They understood that both of them had painful memories about losing parents and growing up with either non-existent or questionable parental figures instead. But now something was making Lio feel angry and anxious, and he was wondering if he _should_ try to put it to words instead.

“It was…” he tried, but that was as far as he got, “I… don’t know.”

“I get it,” Galo said, and Lio could actually believe that because Galo somehow _did_ get emotions scarily well, “You don’t know her and it was kinda like… overstepping boundaries? That’s what my therapist liked to say a lot. Also you’re not used to someone taking care of _you_. It took you a while to accept help from me too.”

“And you’re different because you’re you,” Lio said, “And we’re us.”

It sounded silly to say out loud, but it also made too much sense. He sighed.

“I suppose she was being genuine enough, though. About helping the Burnish, I mean. For that, I can give her the benefit of a doubt, even though I didn’t like her much.”

The TV had started a news report. There had been news about the missing people, and Lio was grateful both about the fact that the media were finally reporting about them, and that they were called just people. Hopefully someone would see something and report it. Hopefully this would stop soon. Hopefully even Alixia would pitch in now that she knew.

“I’m not going to be so petty that I’d get in the way of people who want to help,” Lio said, “Foresight Foundation used to be so powerful here that they could quickly sniff out pretty much everyone who tried to move in here to give the Burnish any aid. Only Mad Burnish dared to try before. So… I guess this is just one more change. A… good one.”

“That’s the spirit!” Galo clapped a hand on Lio’s shoulder, “And who knows, maybe it’ll be great even if the first impression was iffy. I mean, _we_ gave each other a chance, and look how well that turned out!”

Lio lightly punched Galo’s arm.

“I don’t know about _well_. You’re getting pizza grease all over me right now.”

“Oops, but you still love me, right?”

“Don’t let it go to your head.”

“Ha! Too late!” Galo stood up and struck a pose that might have been dramatic if he hadn’t been dressed in only bright red pyjama pants that had tiny firefighter dogs on them, “I’m gonna go down in history as the awesome and cool guy who got through the icy shell of the legendary Mad Burnish Boss!”

“More like an idiot, who- wait, I have to take this.”

His phone had begun to ring, and as soon as he picked it up, someone was babbling in a shaky voice. He listened and spoke as calmly as he could even when his mind started to buzz. When he hung up, he had already walked over to the bedroom to quickly throw on some proper clothes.

“What was it?” Galo asked.

“A man named Zeth Rosae. His daughter Cybil was found yesterday near their house, beaten and nearly unconscious,” he felt anger flaring up inside again even as he said it, “Cybil is recovering, but apparently she wants to talk to me. Zeth thinks she may have been in danger of disappearing like the others.”

“I can come with you.”

“If you want,” Lio said, “Put on a shirt and prepare to let me do the talking.”

* * *

Before Alixia Karis had first burst into flames in her family’s estate, pretty much everything in life had been handed to her on a silver platter. The world had become considerably less generous to her then, but she still acknowledged that before that moment, her life _had_ been incredibly easy and lavish, if a little short on familial love. Springing from that particular pile of gilded ashes had been relatively easy with stolen money on her side. Not many who got pushed into the fringes of society for any reason could say the same. She had known it wasn’t fair, and yet, she hadn’t done anything about it. But life had a habit of throwing lessons everyone’s way, and when her parents had turned on her, Alixia had decided to finally start learning.

From the moment she had walked – or ran – out of her old home as its east wing had been crumbling in a spectacle of pink and cyan flames and her parents had been yelling at every communications device possible for someone with freeze guns to come and get their daughter, she had been a woman with a mission. A mission to help people. To protect. To be the mother her mother had never been.

It had been a good goal. A dream to build a future on even when she kept running until she finally reached a place where she wasn’t recognised and where she could start contacting people whom she could trust. Oh, yes, she also had people. That was another privilege she was very aware of.

It had taken time, but she had achieved a lot of the things she had set out to do. It had been a good life. A hidden and illegal one for sure, but also noble. She had watched with both pride and sadness as people and especially children took refuge in her houses, got on their feet like she had, and sprung forth from ruins that were much shabbier than the ones she had come from. They burned so brightly; some even managed to soar. Some returned to earth, of course, and every one of those times was like an ice bullet into her heart.

Sometimes she had thought that she was too sentimental for this sort of thing. But what else was she supposed to do? This new family was all she had, and why waste time feeling bad if she then did nothing to help others?

Those had been her thoughts back then, and they had sunk in even deeper as the years had gone by. As the promising young faces and ashes kept piling up, haunting her dreams. It was painful, because they were her children even when they weren’t. Even when they didn’t agree. But it would have been worse if she hadn’t been there. She wanted to believe that, at least.

She wanted to believe a lot of things now as well, after one of her children had visited her and told her of the missing Burnish. Lio Fotia had grown up into such a strong-willed young leader. A hero. One to be proud of, definitely, though _of course_ Alixia liked to think that she was proud of all of her children. Lio had the same drive to protect others as she had, the same will to take responsibility for everyone else. But he didn’t yet understand so many things. And he shouldn’t even have to. So many Burnish children grew up far too early… it was painful to watch. One of the many things she hadn’t been able to fix, and consequently one of the mistakes she had made in life.

But maybe there was still time to fix some things, at least. She stood in her office despite it being Sunday and very early. She had a lot of calls to make and to wait for. And a lot of ashes to not think about.

* * *

Zeth Rosae lived with his fourteen-year-old daughter in a building that housed many other Burnish as well. It had freshly painted walls on the outside, but the hallway had spider webs of cracks all over. Zeth had nervous eyes but a gentle voice, and he smiled as soon as she saw Lio and Galo at the door of his apartment.

“Thank you for coming so quickly,” he said, “Last night… Cybil was out at her friend’s place, and I thought she’d stay the night, but she had an argument and left earlier… I’ve told her that she shouldn’t do that, but I…”

He sighed.

“No, I’m sorry. I should… I should just be happy that nothing worse happened, I suppose.”

“Your daughter got hurt,” Lio said, “It’s understandable to be upset.”

“I… Thank you. I’ll let you in so you can ask her what exactly happened. She’s burning bright despite what happened. She’s so brave.”

“Yeah,” Lio said and managed a soft smile, “She is.”

They were led into an apartment that looked much nicer than the hallway, mostly because of the furniture that was mostly handmade. Zeth was good at making pretty things, and recently he had finally managed to make a small business out of it. Another little sign that things were maybe getting better. Slowly. Lio would have been more optimistic about it if they weren’t here because a teenager had got beat up on her way home.

Cybil was sitting on her bed, knees scratched, face bruised, and two of the fingers in her left hand wrapped. She had looked worse before, back when she had been pulled out of Kray’s doomsday engine that Lio didn’t want to think about but that also wormed its way into his mind whenever he saw one of his people hurt. Cybil was small, like a lot of the Burnish who had had to grow up on the run with limited food, but she looked like she had never lost her fire. She had dark clothes and black hair that had been dyed pink at the tips. When she saw Galo and Lio, she grinned.

“You should see the other guys,” she proclaimed, “Hey, Lio. And hey, Mr. Hunky Firefighter.”

“Hi!” Galo said and didn’t seem to mind the blatant objectification, “I’m Galo Thymos!”

“I know,” Cybil said, “I’ve seen you in the videos.”

“How are you?” Lio asked, “Your father told me that you were attacked.”

Cybil’s face scrunched up into annoyance that was a thin mask over fear.

“Yeah,” she said, “But I’m fine now. I wanted to talk to you, though. You said we should tell you if anything weird happens.”

“Your father said that this might have something to do with the disappearances.”

Cybil shrugged and then grimaced. Lio guessed that there was more damage than they could see. Most of it was probably hidden under her black band T-shirt that showed some long-haired people from a northern country where it was always cold and where people would probably play heavy guitar riffs until the actual apocalypse.

“Dad threw a fit when I came back,” Cybil said, “He thought it was probably connected. I mean, I guess _anything_ could be, right? We don’t know what’s going on. It could’ve been random too, though. They were just a couple of stupid guys who smelled like booze and attacked. I don’t even know if anyone around these parts knows that we’re Burnish.”

She leaned forward, suddenly very serious.

“I wish I still _was_ , though,” she said, “I wasn’t ever a fighter, but I could make pretty good fire tendrils. I could have used them to just toss those bastards off me.”

“Then people would have retaliated,” Lio said gently, “But I understand. We used to be stronger.”

Cybil clenched her hands into fists.

“We should still be like that. We could control ourselves, and people should have listened to us and accepted us! Whatever this is now is _not_ acceptance! We had to give up who we were until they pretended to stop being assholes to us, and even now we’re still being treated like crap! It’s bullshit!”

Lio sighed.

“I know it is. That’s… I want everyone to remember that we didn’t give up our flames to be accepted. We gave them up to save the world, and because they wanted to go back home. But you’re right, people _should_ have accepted us before. But that’s… that’s humanity. Humans come up with way worse excuses to be terrible to others than they did with us. This… helping the others really understand who we are is going to take a while.”

Cybil stared at the cyan and black cover on her bed, her face hardening like ice.

“It sucks.”

“Yeah. It does.”

“You’re wrong, though,” Cybil said, “About those jerks retaliating. They wouldn’t have, at least not at that moment. You wanna know why? Because I was saved by a guy who did just that.”

“What? Tossed them around with fire?” Lio frowned, “That shouldn’t be possible.”

“But it happened,” Cybil said defiantly, “I _saw_ that. A… a person in black armour just jumped out at the guys and snagged them with fire. It was like…”

She smiled shyly.

“It reminded me of you. Back when we still had our flames. Those bastards who attacked me stopped being so tough then. They ran for the hills like the cowards they were as soon as they were let go.”

Lio and Galo shared a look before turning back to Cybil.

“What happened then?” Lio asked.

“That armoured person told me to be careful,” Cybil said, “I… I just told them I wanted to go home. I was sort of… starting to catch up with what had just happened, and it was… I think dad said it was shock. By the time I got back, I… it was a blur. I think I got here on my own, but I’m not sure.”

“And this person… where did they go?”

“I don’t know,” Cybil said, “Like I said, it was a blur at that point.”

“You’re sure it was real Burnish flames?” Galo piped up despite his promise to let Lio do the talking.

“I think I can remember what it looked, smelled, and sounded like,” Cybil said in a stilted, mildly offended tone, “When you have fire aliens inside you nearly all your life, it kind of starts to get familiar.”

“I… sorry,” Galo ran his hand through his hair almost sheepishly, “I just meant that… could it really happen? We closed that dimensional portal up good.”

“We did,” Lio said firmly, “I don’t know what this could be. We need to look into it.”

He smiled at Cybil.

“Thank you. You’ve been a great help. Is there anything else you can tell us?”

“No. I’ll tell you if anything comes up, though.”

“Good. And you should probably report this attack to the police. You don’t have to tell them about the flames yet if you don’t want to.”

“Are you sure the police can keep us safe?” asked Zeth, who had tentatively sneaked into the doorway, “Or that they care to even try?”

“They’ve been at least looking into the missing Burnish cases,” Lio said, “And we need to demand that they take responsibility for our safety as well.”

“We shouldn’t need to.”

“I know,” Lio said in the weary tone of someone who had had to have this conversation almost every day for about half of his life, “I can’t force you to do anything. I hope you stay safe, and at least tell me or other Mad Burnish if something like this happens again.”

“Of course we will,” Zeth said, “What do you think this is all about?”

“I’ll tell you when I know,” Lio said.

He managed to hold in another sigh until they made it to the front of the apartment building.

“You know,” he said, “For once I’d like to leave a place with _less_ questions.”

“Isn’t that how all detective stuff starts?” Galo mused, “At least in the movies. There’s a whole bunch of questions at first, but in the end everyone sits in a room and the genius detective _destroys_ everyone with facts. Or then there’s a car chase or a shootout. If those happen, call me, because I wanna be there. I’ll even bring my Matoi tech!”

“Oh, yes, I’m definitely going to start calling in the middle of a shootout.”

“That’s what a speaker phone is for! Or you can get a wireless mic.”

“ _Or_ I can ask you right away to alert Burning Rescue of possible Burnish fire-user in the area. If this is really real, and if this person wants to protect the Brunish, then they might be open for conversation and explain what the hell is going on.”

“Well, duh! We’re gonna be on that case right away! I’ll call the captain when we get home.”

Galo looked surprisingly cheerful after a possibly earth-shaking revelation. But then again, this was Galo they were talking about, so maybe Lio should have expected that. Besides, Lio knew Galo well enough to see the determined set of his jaw even underneath his excited smile, not to mention the burning in his eyes. This was the man who had set the Earth on fire to save it. This was the man who was going to save _everyone_ with a smile.

And so, despite all the questions, the worries, and the news of an impossibility, Lio allowed himself to feel somewhat hopeful. It was strange. Unfamiliar. Like pizza mornings or waking up without nightmares. Like trusting someone so much that it would have scared him if it didn’t make him feel safe. Like seeing a wonderful person sharing his living space simply because it felt nice.

A hardened part of him that had kept him alive this far reminded him that maybe all of that wouldn’t last after all. That this was a world that was too cold and hostile to try to nurture any kind of happiness in. That this was a world where people went missing or wound up attacked. A world that he sometimes wanted to burn again and see it turn into some kind of phoenix planet, reborn into something better.

But like most of the times he thought about these things, Galo was quick to somehow notice that, and he reached out to give Lio’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

“Let’s go home for now. We’ll figure this out.”

And suddenly, Lio stopped thinking about worlds on fire.

“Yeah,” he said, “We will.”

He might not believe that entirely yet, but he sure as hell wouldn’t stop until it happened.

* * *

After the Burnish had lost their fire, working as a firefighter had become much less about mech fights and more about the more old-fashioned rescues. Many Burning Rescue units had been laid off or moved to different tasks, so Galo knew he should consider it lucky that Burning Rescue unit number three still had jobs. Luckily for them, they were heroes, so keeping them was good press. Not to mention the regular fire department had been severely understaffed. Lio had cynically once pointed out that it had probably been on purpose to make sure that the Burnish-snatching departments like Burning Rescue and Freeze Force had been called upon every possible scene that might involve Burnish. And as much as Galo hated thinking so cynically, it made a little too much sense. But whatever the reason, they were still all here: Captain Ignis, tech person Lucia, pilot Aina, heavy machine operator Varys, and second-in-command Remi. And Galo, who was there to be loud and do the riskiest rescues. Sure, it was quieter now, but they were at least still needed.

Galo was definitely excited to try to find this mystery person who may or may not have some unexplained fire tricks up their sleeve, but it quickly turned out that it wasn’t as easy as just telling the captain and waiting for an alarm to ring. Back when Mad Burnish had been doing their thing, they had been flashy, purposefully making statements by striking in ways that left fire alarms screeching and the whole scene very obviously on fire. This person didn’t do any of that. In fact, after possibly saving Cybil Rosae, they hadn’t shown up anywhere. Sometimes Lucia’s drones could catch a tiny flare-up in the city, but when she got a better look, it was usually gone by that point. And that was it. Despite that, rumours still started to spread quickly. People started whispering, worrying that the Burnish might have their fire after all. That everyone had been duped and it was just a matter of time before the Burnish blew up again. It put everyone on edge, made some violent again, and it was just all kinds of unpleasant even though they still didn’t have any evidence that it was real Burnish fire. And all Burning Rescue could do most of the time was wait and monitor.

Galo definitely didn’t like that.

When nothing was happening and things were getting too quiet, Burning Rescue 3 would band together to fend off boredom instead of flames. Three days after their search had started, Burning Rescue 3 were playing cards and taking turns choosing what music to listen to in the background. Aina had put her legs up against the wall, her pink ponytail flopping over her eyes. Lucia claimed it was cheating because it hid her face, even though poker face probably wasn’t necessary in Go Fish. Was it? Galo wasn’t sure about that. He knew very little about poker faces in general. He was too much about wearing his heart on his sleeve, as Remi put it. Varys had squeezed his huge, muscular frame between Galo and Remi, who seemed to be deep in thought as if Go Fish was a complicated maths problem. And maybe it was, but Galo just hadn’t got it yet. Lucia was slouching halfway off one of their chairs like her bones were made of some kind of goo, but she suddenly sprang into action when an alarm went off.

_Oh, YEAH! Action!_

The alarm was followed by a woman’s voice calmly informing them about a fire in a warehouse district. _Everyone_ sprang up. This was what they were here for. Galo managed to scramble over the back of his chair in a hurry to get to work. Varys nearly toppled over a table with his large frame, but was quick enough to right it just in time. Remi was immediately standing in attention, taking only a second to clean his glasses with movements that were so fast and precise that they had to be some kind of _kata_ , like the ones the far-off island nation martial artists did. They piled into a rescue mobile and sped towards the warehouse district with sirens on, and as much as sirens meant that something bad had happened, they also meant that help was on its way. Now _that_ was the soundtrack of Galo’s life.

They didn’t even bother getting into their mechs. A warehouse fire meant that there most likely wouldn’t be any people inside, and the mechs were mostly for high-risk ops anyway. This was going to be a routine thing: put the fire out, check that there was no one in trouble, move on. But damn did it still feel good to enjoy the anticipation of a future job well done.

The rescue mobile turned a corner to the warehouse the alarm had come from. It looked… wait.

“Hey, where’s the fire?” Galo yelled as he scrambled out of the car.

The place looked very much _not_ on fire. There was a faint smell of smoke in the air, but not much else.

“It could be inside,” Aina pointed out, “It’s a big building. Though it _is_ a bit weird to not see _anything_. Lucia, where did the alarm come from?”

“Both indoor alarms and the outdoor ones,” Lucia said, “No way a tiny fire inside would have triggered that many. Also it looks like most of the windows have blown up.”

She pointed at the glass shards on the street. Captain Ignis stepped in front of them, looking sternly from behind an impressive blond moustache and mirrored sunglasses.

“Okay, Burning Rescue!” Ignis growled, “This may look quiet, but don’t forget what we’re here for. Galo, Varys, check the building. Lucia, go back to the comms. Remi, Aina, check the perimeter.”

“Yessir!” Galo said hastily and grabbed a basic extinguisher and an oxygen mask just in case. He followed Varys through big metal doors that opened into a spacious hall with a few doors at each side. It was dark and quiet. The opposite of a fire. Galo tried flicking a light switch near the door, but nothing happened.

“I still smell smoke,” Varys murmured when they stepped further in, “But… wait. Look.”

There were sprinklers in the ceiling, along with some automated extinguishing gel dispensers. Blue gel was still dripping from the dispensers and spread all over the floor.

“I guess the automated systems beat us to it,” Varys said.

“Aw, man!” Galo sighed, “This would’ve been the first fire all week! I got my soul fired up for nothing!”

He looked forlornly at the walls. They were grey and featureless in the dark, with only small squares of broken windows letting through some light.

“Cheer up!” Varys said, “We still get the excitement of figuring out where it started from. I’m guessing electrical. This place has some ancient wiring. But let’s look around.”

“Yeah…” Galo said, and then he halted when he realised that something was off, “Hey, doesn’t this smoke smell… different?”

Varys sniffed the air.

“Actually, yeah. A bit. Like… weirdly nostalgic.”

They glanced at each other. Maybe because the nostalgia was from two years ago, when they had been fighting Burnish flames. Burnish fire had a slightly different smell to real fire. Maybe because it was actually aliens. Varys grinned.

“I guess we’re both weirdos who miss the good old days when shit blew up a lot more often.”

“Ha!” Galo said and stepped over an abandoned, empty box that was blackened and covered in gel, “Yeah. Maybe.”

Neither of them were as carefree as they tried to sound. Galo walked even further in. The warehouse was mostly boring. Abandoned and almost empty. A box here, some tiny desk shoved in a corner there. And… strange scorch marks on the wall?

“Wait…”

He got out a flashlight. It hit the marks that stayed ominously dark against the concrete. Fire had surged outwards from a spot right beneath the largest bunch of sprinklers and gel dispensers. It was hard to see underneath the gel, but there was a darker spot on the ground. And there, almost as if preserved by extinguishing gel, was a vaguely humanoid-shaped pile of…

“Oh, shit,” Galo breathed, “Hey, Varys! You see this?”

Varys was at Galo’s side in an instant. He shone his own light at Galo’s discovery and frowned somewhere under his baseball cap.

“You think this was it?” he said.

“There’s scorch marks,” Galo waved his hand vaguely towards the marks but didn’t look away from the pile in front of him, “But that’s not what I mean. Look at _this_.”

Varys looked.

“Ash,” he said, “A whole lot of it. Something _was_ burned there. But if the extinguishers went off right away like this, how would anything have time to burn down so cleanly?”

Something glimmered in the light. Galo reached out with a gloved hand and pulled a small chain from the gel and ashes. A bracelet with a tiny, slightly melted star-shaped charm.

Galo remembered a cave with a dying woman. He remembered a hellish engine made to harness Burnish power through basically torturing them to the death. He remembered Lio’s arms flaking away into nothing…

“Nope, not that memory, thanks,” he said through gritted teeth, “Varys… I… the rumours about the person with fire… And now, ashes like this? The Burnish used to turn to ashes when they died. Do you think…?”

Varys blinked.

“Yeah, they _used to_ ,” he said, “…Shit, that _would_ make sense if it wasn’t impossible, wouldn’t it?”

The smell, the ashes that were too clean to be a regular burned body, even the scorch marks that did look a bit triangular in places if one looked closer…

But the Promare were gone, right? Galo and Lio had let them satisfy their need to burn and return to their own dimension. The dimensional gate had closed, and it was supposed to _stay_ closed, as far as Galo knew. Though to be fair, Galo didn’t often know very far, especially when it came to interdimensional space-time rifts. But…

He pushed a button on his radio.

“Aina! Can you come over here? We’ve got… a thing.”

_“A thing? You’re gonna have to be way more specific... Never mind, we’re almost there.”_

Aina, Ignis, and Remi ran through the open doors and skidded to a halt when they saw the gel on the floor.

“Whoa,” Aina said, “Careful, this is slippery. Galo, what was the thing?”

Galo lifted up the bracelet and then pointed at the pile. Aina crouched in closer. Remi came closer as well, adjusting his glasses and squinting at the ashes.

“Is that…?” Aina whispered, “But it can’t be, right?”

“If you mean it can’t be a body, then what else could it be?” Remi asked, “If you look closely, there’s even some burned shreds of fabric that could be clothes around it.”

“But…” Aina said and looked at Galo desperately, “The Promare are supposed to be _gone_.”

There was a heavy moment of confused and sad silence. Then Ignis broke it with a no-nonsense:

“Well, we aren’t going to just stay here guessing, are we? We call some experts and keep the area closed off until they get here. And Galo…”

“Yeah?”

“Call Fotia over here as well.”

“What?”

“I don’t like it either,” Ignis said, “But we need a Burnish to verify your theory about the body.”

“But-!” Galo began, but then realised that yeah, Ignis was probably right, as much as he hated causing Lio any more unpleasant memories. And Lio would need to know anyway, sooner or later, “Yeah… okay.”

A tense forever later, Lio and his two generals arrived, looking extremely uncomfortable when Ignis briefed them and showed them the bracelet. Galo tried not to fidget too much at his spot near the rescue mobile while he watched the three Burnish walk into the building. About fifteen minutes later they walked out, quiet and with their heads bowed. There was a tired, hollow look in their eyes, and no one really needed to ask what they had seen in there. Then Lio closed his eyes and his expression hardened into something Galo hadn’t seen in two years. Without a word, he walked to the side and started making calls. Another fifteen minutes passed, and then Lio returned.

“It’s Terri Vesper,” he said quietly, “Her husband told me she had a bracelet like that.”

“She’s one of the missing people, right?” Ignis said. Lio nodded slowly, suddenly looking very lost.

“She went missing two months ago. She was completely… she wasn’t with the flames, just like none of us are, so this… I suppose it could be a really elaborately faked death, or then someone killed her and really wanted to make a display out of it. But… that’s not what it feels like. Especially with the rumours going around.”

“Boss…” Meis lightly touched Lio’s shoulder, “How’s any of this possible?”

“It shouldn’t be,” Lio said, “But you saw and smelled that place. Somehow… Terri was in there and she was on fire. And now she’s ashes.”

He took a shaky breath.

“Let’s ask if anyone has seen her around here until… this moment. I suppose the police should know about this as well. And then… we’ve got a family to visit.”

Galo glanced forlornly at the warehouse. It was still a deceptively ordinary grey cube. At this point, Galo had come across dead bodies in his work. He had seen people die during rescue. Not many, but even one was too much. At least then they had usually known what the problem had been. He wasn’t sure if this unexplained body was better or worse than knowing exactly what had gone wrong.

He supposed it didn’t matter.

What mattered was that most likely, a life had been lost.

The evening suddenly felt much colder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I promise I'll start unravelling this mess soon! What have I got myself into...?
> 
> I've tried to pin down the sub-genre of mystery this is gonna be. I am intending it to be somewhat action-heavy towards the end, akin to a more American hard-boiled stuff, but I realise that this also has the domestic, kinda grounded feel of Nordic detective stories, which are the ones I have read the most. I am going to keep the rating in T, so the stuff that'll be uncovered won't be nearly as fucked up as in most of the Nordic detective novels, though. It's probably gonna be needlessly complicated and less clever than it could be. I'm just not that great at plots, and this is me trying to practice that.
> 
> Also hey, I updated the tags a bit, because they were not adequate to make it clear just what kind of relationship I'm writing for Lio and Galo. I'm going to write it in the way that the kind of attraction they have towards each other stays ambiguous throughout. What is certain and what matters is that they very much want to be life partners and love each other dearly, whether it is platonic, romantic, or something that can't be clearly defined by either of those terms. Because that's how my very asexual soul rolls. But hey, there's cuddles and emotional intimacy! Yay!
> 
> Feedback, kudos, and just passing glances are all very much appreciated! Have a lovely time and stay safe!


	4. Reignite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flames have been reignited, but for now, things are still eerily calm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT NOTE! I revised chapters 1-3 because I realised I needed to make some small but important changes and additions! I am SO SORRY for this inconvenience!
> 
> I put a short explanation of the changes made in the beginning notes of each chapter, so you don't necessarily need to reread them if you don't want to. Each chapter does now have a flashback scene that wasn't there before and they're pretty important, but I've added them to the very beginning of the chapters, so you don't have to look for them.
> 
> If you've read chapters 1-3 before 1st August, then it might be good to check the beginning notes of each chapter and read the flashbacks in the beginning. Again, I am so sorry! :( I promise I'll try to avoid this happening again!

_Three months after his arrival, Felix came out of his shell, so to speak. He was still fairly quiet, but he took part in group activities and made friends. He was even excited when they all got together one night and pretended they still had their fire. They put on music and danced, and the most skilled of them made their bodies move like flames. Felix danced as well as he could, but it was clear that he had never danced any of the Burnish flame dances before._

_He seemed to have fun anyway. They_ all _had fun that evening. Eon didn’t remember the last time he had laughed so much._

_Afterwards, they sat in a corner with glasses of water, let themselves cool down. Felix was still smiling like an idiot, and it was all kinds of endearing. He didn’t look so hollow anymore._

_“Was it like this when you had your flames?” he asked, “I mean… I never saw this dance.”_

_“Nah, it was much, much more magnificent,” Eon said, “There’s a reason the dance hall walls are extra fireproofed. We’d make shapes out of the fire and dance among them. Sometimes we sang, and the flames sang with us.”_

_“Do you miss it?”_

_“Of course I do. Do you?”_

_“I… yes.”_

_Felix looked into the distance, his water forgotten._

_“Would you want them back?” he asked, “If you could?”_

_Eon laughed._

_“Despite all the pain we’ve had to endure? Hell, yes! If we could somehow do it safely, so that people wouldn’t explode on us again, at least.”_

_“It would have to be in secret, then?”_

_“At first, maybe. But not forever. People would have to accept us.”_

_He grinned._

_“Man, it would be great.”_

* * *

Terri Vesper had been swept under the tide of other people’s hate when she had been revealed as Burnish, and she hadn’t made it out of Promepolis before Freeze Force had got to her. She had been lucky to be alive, and even luckier to live in a place of her own only a year after the Parnassus incident. She had taken care of two cats, who had wandered to her place. She had sung melancholy songs when she had felt too lonely. Or then she had hosted small gatherings to people who wanted to talk. She had been almost happy, for a while. Especially since the violence had mostly stopped. Terri Vesper had never been a fighter. She had been a person who’d rather talk, and even though she’d always had good control of her flames, she’d never had a desire to morph them into snakes or use them to make things explode.

They had sung to her, of course. They had whispered their desire to burn, burn, _burn_ ever since she had awakened. She had been good at controlling it, only burning where no one could get hurt. She had missed them afterwards. She had missed them so much it had hurt, so much that she had been stupid and not thought twice when she had got a mysterious message to come and meet an old friend, who had thought they had found remnants of the flames.

They had found them, alright. Or at least… they had found someone who had kept the flames alive. Trapped, just like she had been after she had found out. It was too big a secret for now. Too dangerous in a world still so ready to rage and to hurt them. And they needed to stay anyway, because here the flames could be cured and the pain would stop. But it was also… not right to keep them there. Terri hadn’t known what to do at first. She had idly planned her escape for nearly her entire stay, but it had been just ideas, something to ease her mind when she had felt conflicted about staying.

But then the first death had happened, and there had been no outside help coming.

Terri had realised at that moment that she had to actually put her plans to use.

She wouldn’t have been able to do it without Phedra. It was a stroke of luck that a former Mad Burnish had been lured into the mess. Phedra was a survivor, and she had broken out of facilities already before she had started riding motorcycles made of flames.

Together, they could make it. Together, they _had_ made it.

_Burn..._

Almost.

Maybe things would have been better if they hadn’t been stupid enough to steal more of the flames. Or stupid enough to separate when their pursuers had almost caught them.

_Bright… home…_

Maybe…

Except even together they couldn’t have outrun the fire inside them.

Terri Vesper had cried when the flames had consumed her. She had been alone, with no means to call anyone. She had only barely made it into the city. She had hastily scribbled down a message for Phedra and then stood underneath the automated sprinklers in a warehouse where she had managed to drag herself into. To hide, to keep others safe. The whispers were screams now. The song had been distorted from the start, and something that shouldn’t ever be broken had snapped. The fire was in pieces, and it was crying too. She hated killing the flames, but without her, and without anywhere to go to anymore, they would panic.

The water and the extinguishing gel hit her when she couldn’t hold back a violent flare anymore. It was her last one, the last cry of the flames before they burned her out in their confusion.

_Burnbrightfindhome._

* * *

Lio wasn’t sure if he could afford to think about anything other than the missing Burnish or Terri’s ashes at the moment, but he had to admit that using up all his time trying to solve an incomprehensible case was starting to get a bit overwhelming. He had barely slept in the last three days anyway, and finding Terri definitely wasn’t helping. He had gone through the list of former Foresight employees the best he could and made about a thousand calls. He had ridden around the city like a madman and managed only barely to do his actual work as a Burnish activist. He had even contemplated calling Aina’s sister in the middle of the night to ask about the possibility of the Promare somehow coming back or staying. But he hadn’t gone _that_ far yet. Heris Ardebit was… not a bad person, but Lio still couldn’t talk to her for very long without getting the urge to smash something. She had worked for Kray, helped him design that torture engine, and she had done it _knowingly._ Sure, she had done it to protect her sister, and she had turned against Kray eventually, but it wasn’t enough to make Lio forgive her. And yet, she was probably the only person who had worked for Kray and whom he could trust enough to ask. Maybe he should just ask Aina to talk to her. At least that way he wouldn’t need to see her face and be reminded of the people who had burned to ashes in the Parnassus.

He put it down on the list of things he was supposed to do today. Among those things was also another meeting with Alixia, this time at the Burnish shelter she had bought. He cursed. He was _not_ mentally prepared for this. But he couldn’t whine about it either, so he downed his morning coffee, which he had brewed so dark it was almost considered a solid, and threw on a jacket.

The shelter Alixia had bought was one of the larger ones, the street-level floor of an older commercial building that had emptied at some point because better buildings had been built around it. It needed quite a bit of renovation before it could be called comfortable, which was why it was one of the centres that had emptied once more and more Burnish had started finding homes and there wasn’t need for as many shelters, but it had a nice floor plan and it was structurally sound. It hadn’t suffered in the destruction of the battle like the buildings in the central district, but it still wasn’t too far away from everything.

Many had felt safe there. Lio had visited it many times, and had almost always seen tentative smiles, or at least well-rested eyes. As much as Lio hadn’t liked the first impression Alixia had given him, he had to admit that he did like someone doing something nice with the place.

“It’s going to be sort of like one of my safehouses,” Alixia said, “A place to stop and rest. Except less secret, less focused on sleeping arrangements and more on spaces to meet, talk, and just spend time. I’m also thinking of finding some Burnish therapists, who might want to work here. There are never too many of those.”

“I agree.”

Lio couldn’t help a small smile when he walked through the familiar hallway. Sure, it hadn’t been a proper home, but places like this had at least given the Burnish hope. Hope that they might one time have a home and that they could finally try to recover from everything.

“This was a good space for us,” Lio said fondly, “I mean, for what it was. At least here people had a place to sleep, and even some more closed spaces for privacy. And it’s in a relatively safe area of the city. If any place can be safe for us yet.”

“Yes, it has a lot of promise,” Alixia said, “I know it doesn’t look like much yet. We haven’t had time to properly start working on it. I haven’t been here for that long, just barely two months, and most of that time has gone to settling in, getting connected, all that.”

She stroked a windowsill that had good space for a small person to sit on. Many children had looked out of these windows in awe of streets they had almost never seen before.

“And of course we still need a bit more funding. I’ve noticed that my legitimate business skills may be a bit rusty after all that time forced on the black markets.”

She laughed.

“Those times are probably not ones to be proud of. But at least I did my best not to hurt anyone and avoided the sketchiest endeavours.”

“We all did what we had to.”

“Exactly. And doesn’t everyone deserve a second chance anyway?”

Lio thought about Kray Foresight and the countless agonised cries of innocent people.

“I wish I could afford to be that forgiving.”

Alixia smiled sadly.

“Ah, yes... I do admit that sometimes I haven’t picked my second chances well.”

She leaned to the windowsill and looked out to the street where people and cars sped by as if genocide had never been attempted just a few blocks away.

“It’s strange to be here, in the middle of everything. _Safe_. Well, as safe as can be. Is there any news of the missing people?”

“…we may have found Terri Vesper,” Lio said, because at least that piece of news had already started to spread in the Burnish community. Deaths were usually reported very quickly out of habit, “She was dead.”

“Oh,” Alixia fell silent and closed her eyes for a moment before she took a deep, mournful breath, “I’m so sorry to hear that. What do you think happened?”

“I… we don’t know yet.”

“I see. And you still insist on continuing this… snooping on your own? It’s… very dangerous.”

“It’s not the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done.”

“I can imagine, but you don’t _have_ to do any of this anymore,” Alixia took a moment to sigh, “I understand the feeling of responsibility, but this is not your job.”

“Have you heard about the alleged vigilante who uses fire?” Lio asked while pointedly ignoring Alixia, “Their sudden appearance is… odd, and too many odd things at once could mean something.”

“I have, yes. It’s very strange.”

“Do you think it could be possible?” Lio asked, “You meet a lot of Burnish. Have you heard anything about anyone retaining their powers or possibly reawakening?”

Alixia was quiet for a long moment. Lio, who had to read a lot of body language especially after becoming a professional activist, who talked about uncomfortable topics with people who didn’t want to admit they might have been participating in oppression, noticed the split-second of tension in her jaw and her eyes flicking upwards before settling back on Lio.

“There have been stories and rumours ever since the fire left,” she said, “Then again, anything is possible, isn’t it? Maybe some of the Promare stayed somehow.”

“They were an alien hive mind all merged together in the centre of the Earth or tied to the Burnish – from what I can tell, both at once. It’s… unlikely that some would just separate from the others, especially without anyone noticing.”

“We didn’t really understand them, though, did we?” Alixia said, “We just somehow picked up their signal. But you’re probably right, and all those stories are just false hope that we could be what we were.”

She hugged herself, almost vulnerable.

“Do you miss them?” she asked.

It was a question every Burnish had heard often in the last two years. And most of them had the same answer.

“Yes,” Lio said, “Of course I do.”

“I wonder if things could have been different,” Alixia said quietly, “Of course… they should have been different from the start. I understand that what made us different wasn’t something arbitrary like… what we looked like or who we shared our lives with. We were actually dangerous. People were afraid. But so were we. Maybe we could have found a way to coexist.”

“Maybe,” Lio said, “If humans didn’t have the tendency to lash out first and thinking… possibly never.”

“Yes. We can be such irrational creatures, can’t we?” Alixia let out a joyless laugh, “But enough about sad things. How do you think the Burnish here are doing, aside from all the messy things going on?”

“We’re doing our best to adjust, and to fit in.”

“Yes, that’s the feel I’ve got from this city too. It’s wonderful how you’ve managed after all the horrors that happened around here. I didn’t come here back then. It was too risky… I thought about it, of course, but I don’t think I could have done much. How about you?”

“I came to the Promepolis area because I had a plan that I thought might work.”

“No, I meant… Are you happy?”

There was something in the tone of her voice that made Lio uneasy again. Something that made the question sound like it mattered a bit too much to be casual.

“I’m fine,” he answered, “Busy, but aren’t we all?”

“Oh, that reminds me,” Alixia handed Lio a small envelope with delicate, pink patterns on the borders, “Remember the charity dinner I mentioned? I managed to make the arrangements for next Sunday already, and plenty of interested people are going to attend. I do hate this sort of posturing for charity, but if it brings in the money from people who care more about looking good than doing actual good for the sake of it… well, I’m ready to make that sacrifice. I know I’m a bit late with inviting you, but it would be a great help to have you there.”

“Uh… thank you,” Lio took the envelope and put it into his jacket pocket, careful not to wrinkle it, “I think I can make it.”

“You can bring a guest as well. I’m sure people would be delighted to also see the firefighter you saved the world with. I’ve heard you live with him.”

“Everyone knows that by now,” Lio shrugged and tried his best to hide his annoyance. This was usually how the _questions_ started. Alixia didn’t seem to be interested in the usual “what are you”s, but what she actually said almost made Lio wish she _was_ :

“I hope he’s treating you well.”

Lio bristled. It seemed to happen a lot in Alixia’s presence.

“We’re perfectly happy. But I really don’t see how that’s _any_ of your business.”

“Oh,” Alixia at least had the decency to be embarrassed, “I didn’t mean to pry… I was just curious, that’s all. I would like us to be friends.”

“Okay,” Lio said with forced politeness, “Then I’d definitely prefer if you knew your boundaries. I don’t like near-strangers asking me about my private life.”

“Right… I’m sorry,” Alixia sighed, “It’s just… some people respond well to being cared for, especially in my safehouses, where there were so many who hadn’t experienced that before. So I tend to slip to that.”

“Well, I don’t like it, so can you stop?”

“Of course. Sorry. I didn’t mean for us to start on the wrong foot,” Alixia said, “I do tend to worry, though. I don’t think I can just switch that off.”

“I can understand that,” Lio said, “I don’t think I can go a single day without worrying about others. Which is also why I’m trying to help solve these disappearances. And why I hope everyone who can would also help.”

He glanced at Alixia, who was staring out of the window. She looked tired and stressed, but so did almost everyone in this city. Finally, she nodded slowly.

“I’ll tell you if I hear anything that might help.”

“And you’re _sure_ you haven’t heard anything about the Promare returning?”

“I think I would remember if I’d heard anything worthwhile,” Alixia said, “I promise to keep you updated.”

“Right,” Lio forced a smile on his face, “Thank you.”

Lio maintained his smile all the way out of Alixia’s new building, but then he gritted his teeth and hid his scowl underneath his motorcycle helmet. He sped back home, where he immediately called Meis.

“Hey,” he said, “You know Alixia Karis? Yeah, the safehouse person. We need to look into her too. She’s hiding something.”

* * *

The world had changed a lot in the past thirty years, after the first Burnish had awakened. The unrest and clashes between Burnish and non-Burnish had set the world ablaze – literally – and too many had died. In the wake of it all, surviving non-Burnish people had come together, mingled even more than before. Though even after a disaster some people still insisted on not getting along with others based on nonsensical things. The Burnish had hidden away or isolated themselves. In the worst areas, where the clashes had been the most intense, only small fragments of countries and independent city-states like Promepolis huddled in the middle of large expanses of scorched desert that had formed far quicker than deserts normally would. The unforgiving sands hid ruined cities, had buried entire highways, and housed secrets nearly no one knew about. Secrets that so easily faded away, like a suspicious number of footsteps and tyre tracks that had led towards Promepolis in the distance, only visible for moments before the dry winds had smoothed them out.

In a few areas in the new wastelands, some scientists had managed to introduce plant life back into the ecosystems and were optimistic that they could slowly revive the burned parts of the world. The fear and the hate in people was even more difficult to fix, but at least now no one had a reason to be afraid that anyone would spontaneously burst into flames.

Except that now there probably was. Again.

Someone had burned inside a warehouse in what looked suspiciously like a Burnish flare. But that shouldn’t be possible, because the aliens called the Promare were gone and the dimensional rift they had come through had been closed. Livvy Bates had seen a bunch of scientists on TV trying to explain it from some dead doctor’s notes. She didn’t understand a lot of it, but she understood enough to know that a dimensional gate like that didn’t happen in one place often. In fact, it was nearly impossible for one of a similar scale to open ever again anywhere near Earth.

Oh, well, Livvy wasn’t here to solve the mysteries of quantum physics, but a mysterious death of a formerly missing person.

Livvy and Darion had decided to take another look at the warehouse in daylight, just in case they had missed anything last night, with sullen firefighters and mourning bikers staring distractingly from the sidelines until they had been shooed away. Even in the morning after the initial discovery of the presumed body, the scene was full of extinguishing gel and burn marks. A real goopy mess. And there indeed had been a pile of ashes, but it was now among the things that had been taken to a forensics lab to be analysed. Otherwise the place was mostly empty.

“Still grim,” Livvy muttered, “You see anything, Darion?”

Darion was checking the few boxes and pieces of furniture with his hands covered in gloves.

“Just junk,” he said, “And burns… not much else.”

“You think she just stood under there, on fire?” Livvy nodded towards the spot the ashes had been.

“Possibly. It kinda looks that way.”

“Could someone have lit her on fire normally? Not that there’s anything normal about lighting someone on fire.”

“If there was anyone here besides her, the lab people might figure that out,” Darion said, “But since the firefighters and those Burnish guys just waltzed in here, the footprints are kinda all over the place, at least.”

“Yeah…”

“Hey. I see something. I think. Come look.”

What Darion was seeing was odd, triangular lines burned into the side of an abandoned desk. Upon closer inspection, similar markings could be found in a wall near where the ashes had been, and even under one of the boxes. Above one set of marks were much shakier lines that looked like someone had tried to scribble some actual words in.

“Aside from those squiggles, these all look the same,” Darion said, “It would be a hell of a coincidence if this fire just happened to make these.”

“Is this like a Burnish equivalent of someone writing their attacker’s name in blood?” Livvy said.

“I mean, something like that, maybe? Maybe she scribbled these messages before she burst into flames.”

“Ugh,” Livvy said, “That’s still not a nice image.”

“What do you think it says?”

“These more squiggly lines look a bit like ‘sorry’,” Darion said, “And then… maybe a ‘p’, and that could be a ‘d’… But as for the triangles, I don’t know. Do you think the Burnish had some kind of code they used?”

“Probably,” Livvy said, “We can ask. Maybe Fotia would know.”

To be fair, Livvy wasn’t looking forward to calling Fotia about anything regarding this case. She didn’t have anything against the guy, of course, but it seemed that he was still snooping around on his own. Livvy didn’t like civilians sticking their noses into their work. It usually led to said civilians ending up in trouble or hurt. And no, she didn’t care if Fotia had been some kind of revolutionary leader and apparently a capable fighter even without fire. Bad things could always happen to anyone who pushed their luck. But at least he hadn’t made any waves so far, and he had apparently been doing what he could to keep people calm even with the rumours of a flame wielder roaming the streets. She took a picture of the messages and immediately called the number Fotia had given them when they had first met regarding the missing Burnish case.

“Hey, Fotia,” Livvy said, “It’s Livvy Bates, from the police. Remember me?”

 _“Yes,”_ came Fotia’s no-nonsense voice, _“Do you have something?”_

“Maybe. But this isn’t just to enable your possibly dangerous quest to solve this on your own. I need to know if the Burnish used to or still have some sort of code to communicate with each other.”

There was a silence at the other end. Probably the silence of Fotia contemplating whether to trust Livvy or not.

 _“It’s probably no surprise that we had several,”_ Fotia eventually said, _“Why?”_

“We may have found a coded message at the warehouse where you found Terri Vesper’s remains.”

_“What? Please, send it over and I’ll see if I can decode it.”_

“Okay. I’m sending it now. Don’t hang up, please.”

There was a thoughtful silence after Livvy sent the photos, but only for a moment before Fotia spoke again:

_“They’re directions. Starting from a meeting spot and going a short way to the right and then below. It’s not very specific, but I’m assuming it’s not far from the starting point.”_

“And what is the starting point?”

_“Like I said, a meeting spot. It doesn’t specify what it is, so I can only guess that the message was for someone specific, with whom Terri had agreed to meet somewhere. You can also do a sweep around the warehouse Terri was found in and see if there are any hiding places or tunnels underneath. Just in case she meant that the place she was found in was where you were supposed to start.”_

It was a calm, to-the-point speech from a young person who had just yesterday identified a body of their friend or acquaintance and was now talking about them again. Livvy wanted to think he was being clinical for the sake of not getting too emotional, because the alternative – the sadly more likely one – was that the barely-twenty-year-old had already been numbed by the horrors he had experienced in his life.

“So this is a vague map,” Livvy said, “To what?”

_“Usually safety, supplies, or a person. But in this case? I don’t know. If we want to know more, we need to know who the message was for.”_

“Actually, there was another message above one of these too,” Livvy said, “We think. See that smudge in the first picture I sent? Right above the map thing?”

_“Oh. Yeah, I see it.”_

“Darion Greer thought it might say ‘sorry’.”

_“That… yes. It could be. Wait… Oh, shit!”_

“What?”

_“I think it says ‘sorry, Phedra’.”_

Oh. Livvy could see it now too, even though the words almost looked like someone had tried to do super old fancy lettering while drunk. Or combusting. Yikes. Considering the circumstances, it wasn’t a huge stretch to assume that Phedra meant Phedra Deo, another one of the missing. Livvy wasn’t sure if she should be disappointed or let her heart start hammering with the joy of discovery and progress.

“Thank you, Mr. Fotia,” she said.

 _“Do you think this means that Terri and Phedra were supposed to meet somewhere?”_ Fotia said, now finally sounding slightly less dead inside and almost anxious, _“For… something. I don’t know what. But then Terri burned out before they made it there… That probably means that Phedra also made it back to the city or out from wherever she was!”_

“We’ll keep looking for her,” Livvy replied in her best calming voice, “And everyone else as well.”

She would have liked to promise that they would find them. But she knew that Fotia would call her bullshit and not appreciate empty promises. No one ever knew how these things ended. They could only do their best.

* * *

After Burning Rescue had discovered what was presumably the ashes of Terri Vesper, the search for the mysterious fire vigilante became even more intense. If the Burnish really were getting their powers back, things could get ugly very quickly if it wasn’t handled with care. This was again one of those times when Galo felt that the world was stupidly more complicated than it should be. He stubbornly did what he could to fix that, though at this point it mostly meant staying next to Lucia in front of her monitors when there wasn’t anything else to do at work and trying not to explode out of restlessness.

Lucia Fex had taken the challenge of finding an elusive superhero much like she took all challenges: with a grin that was maybe a bit too wide to be innocent. She now sat cross-legged in her chair, a bowl of Skittles on her lap, settled comfortably as if heat-vision footage of several parts of the city was mesmerising entertainment. She was a genius, and therefore she could also afford to be eccentric. She sent an occasional annoyed glare at Galo whenever Galo started to tap his foot or groan because nothing was happening, and sometimes she tossed food at their rat mascot Vinny, but otherwise she kept her eyes glued to the screen.

“Could that be it?” Galo asked and pointed at a random, slightly brighter spot.

“Nah,” Lucia said, “I think that’s someone barbecuing on their balcony. These drones are _really_ sensitive even when I’ve turned the settings down a bit.”

“Oof. Barbecuing on the balcony isn’t even allowed in that district! Real fire hazard!”

“Yeah,” Lucia fiddled with some controls and suddenly that particular screen switched to regular vision, “Yep. Barbecue it is. And there’s an angry neighbour already calling someone.”

“Okay, how about that other screen? With the- no wait, I think that’s just a really hot generator in an underground power room. Someone should really check that it’s working right.”

“Galo, you don’t have to comment on every single hotspot you see. I know you’re still bummed out about those Vesper-ashes, and yeah, it’s only been a few hours since that, but come _on_! We’ll find that armour-person when we find them!”

“Actually, it’s been nearly a day. Probably. What time is it?”

Lucia blinked.

“It has? Time flies when you pull all-nighters. Hey, what’s the safe amount of energy drink a person can drink in twenty-four hours?”

“Um… for someone your size?” Galo asked and glanced at the army of empty bottles, as well as a lonely half-full bottle with contents that looked oddly radioactive, “I… I’m gonna guess less than what you drink.”

“Meh, my blood’s just sugar and additives at this point anyway,” Lucia shrugged, “But this is what you asked me to do, and I’m doing it. You owe me for this!”

“You _can_ ask someone else to monitor this stuff too,” Galo said, “Or don’t you have an automatic system that go all siren-y when your drones see something weird?”

“Yeah, of _course_ I have that, but seeing this stuff with my own eyes is too interesting!” Lucia said, “And it’s an excuse to brainstorm new inventions. I get my best ideas when I’ve been awake for seventy-two hours.”

“That… doesn’t sound safe.”

“Ha! It’s _not_!” Lucia snorted with somewhat worrisome laughter and then spun around in her chair when she saw something on one of her monitors, “Oh, by the way, your burning soulmate is here.”

“What?” Galo asked, and Lucia pointed at a screen that was sending feed from the front of their own station. A black and pink motorbike had just driven to the front and Lio was waiting for the garage doors to open so that he could put his bike into safety, “Oh.”

It wasn’t unheard of to see Lio at the station. Sure, he was busy, but sometimes he visited for work, and sometimes just because. But Galo hadn’t expected Lio to be free… wait, what time _was_ it?

“It’s already eight thirty p.m.?!” Galo exclaimed. Maybe Lucia wasn’t the only one too mesmerised by heat vision cameras.

“So now you’re asking _me_?” Lucia said, “I’ve been awake for long enough for time to be meaningless.”

It was way past the end of Galo’s shift. The only reason Ignis hadn’t kicked Galo home yet was probably because Galo was helping Lucia, and nobody could kick Lucia out. Galo was fairly sure that she was some kind of fire station cryptid.

“Galo?” Lio’s voice rang out in from between the shining, red rescue mobiles, “Are you still here?”

Galo jumped up from his chair when Lio came to view.

“Heyy, Lio!” he said, “How was your day?”

“Possibly productive but not good,” Lio shrugged, “And you?”

“Boring. But better now that you’re here.”

“So I’m not interesting company?” Lucia snorted from her seat.

“Sure you are! It’s just that _nothing’s been happening_! Wait, _did_ something happen, Lio? Is that why you’re here? Do you need the great Galo Thymos for something?”

“Sorry, but not really,” Lio said, “I just wanted to see that you were alright, and… maybe just to remind myself that there are trustworthy people around. I talked to Alixia again, and she was hiding something. I think she knows something about these possible Burnish reawakenings she didn’t want to tell me.”

“Why wouldn’t she want to do that?” Galo frowned, “Doesn’t she want to protect all Burnish like you?”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out now,” Lio said, “I went through so many files and made so many calls to her former safehouses… Nothing yet, but… ugh. I maybe focused too much on that. I was supposed to ask Aina’s sister about the Promare returning, and recheck our search routes, and… There’s too many things to focus on right now!”

“Hey,” Galo said and put his hands on Lio’s shoulders to stop Lio from working himself into some kind of frenzy, “I’m sure you did enough today.”

Lio sighed.

“It’s not enough until we find them,” Lio said and looked at Lucia’s screens a bit longingly.

“I mean, sure, but you can pace yourself a bit,” Galo said and now properly took in Lio’s appearance. Galo may be an idiot, but he wasn’t blind, and he could tell that Lio had spent the last three or so nights either working or staring at the ceiling, “You look worse than Lucia.”

“Hey!” Lucia shot a glare over her shoulder, “I look just fine!”

“I meant you both look like you need to sleep,” Galo said, “You know, that thing humans need to stay alive?”

“Not me! I’m doing juuuust fine!”

“How many energy drinks has she consumed?” Lio whispered.

“Too many,” Galo shrugged. “Ooh, hey! Maybe instead of having a ‘who’s gonna crash first’ -contest, we _all_ get some sleep here, and Lucia’s automatic thingies’ll wake us up if anything weird happens! So then it’s like we’re working and resting at once! We can make it a sleepover! I’m sure the captain won’t mind.”

Lio stared at Galo, and then at Lucia’s screens for a long moment, and then he managed a near-laugh.

“Lucia, did Galo just make a… smart suggestion?” he asked.

“I’m just as shocked as you are!” Lucia said and somehow managed to keep her balance despite leaning nearly her entire weight on the back of her chair.

“Laugh all you want, but at least _I_ almost had eight hours of sleep last night,” Galo said, “Almost.”

They didn’t make it much past ten o’clock before sleep started to catch up with them. When Lio started nodding off on his feet, Galo unceremoniously dumped him on a vacant couch in what was considered a lounge area. It was close to Lucia’s workstation, and even though the station’s couches were probably more uncomfortable than Galo’s mediocre one, they still did their job. Not that Lucia or Lio would have had any trouble crashing on pretty much anything at this point. Lucia had put a pair of her many goggles over her eyes and was hugging a circuit board in the corner of a couch, snoring softly. Galo glanced at Lio, who had semi-reluctantly settled on his back, his feet on Galo’s lap. Lio was staring at the ceiling again, and that was never a good sign.

“Hey,” Galo whispered, “What’s on your mind?”

Lio didn’t reply for a long moment. In the background, a door opened when Varys – who as doing night shift – made his way to the gym because there was nothing else to do either. Then everything went silent, strangely heavy. It was the kind of silence Galo didn’t like because it was uneasy and a bit foreboding. It almost felt like even the dust in the air was slowing down to a stop.

“This can’t go on for long,” Lio finally said, “We can’t let… this isn’t just about a few missing people anymore – though there isn’t really a thing like ‘ _just_ missing people’ – but about…”

He paused to rearrange his words into something that made sense.

“We thought we did the right thing when we closed that gate. It was the _only_ thing that we could have done at that point, and it _should_ have worked. I heard them. The Promare. They wanted to burn and go home. So how would…? We have to figure this out fast. What we’ve all managed to build here is… definitely not perfect, but it’s a start. If people start combusting again and we won’t know why, then we’ll just go back to where we started. We _can’t_ let that happen again.”

“No. We won’t,” Galo said.

“I keep hoping this is all some kind of trick,” Lio muttered, his eyes now closing but his jaw still too tense, “That… I don’t know, some anti-Burnish gang is just putting in some serious extra effort. It wouldn’t be good, but at least it would be more comprehensible.”

“Whatever it’s gonna be, we’ll make it right.”

Lio laughed.

“You swear it on your burning soul?”

There were some moments when Galo recognised sarcasm. But whenever the talk was about burning or souls, he actively refused to see it.

“Well, obviously!” he theatre-whispered and posed as heroically as one could while sitting down with another person partially on one’s lap.

“Okay. Sure,” Lio said, a sleepy smile on his face, “Then I guess we _will_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ssssiiigh. This is why I should have waited until I have more of the story written before I post anything. I thought I had the story pretty much built, and this was supposed to be mostly just a fun, let's get rid of routa's writer's block by writing a mystery/action story (yes, there will be action later) and not think too much about it. But the problem is that I DO think too much about everything, and my brain reminded me that if I want to actually just write a fun, word-vomit story, MAYBE I SHOULDN'T DO A FREAKIN' MYSTERY! Because those actually need to make sense! So yes. I suck. I had to do rewrites. But I am happier with this now.
> 
> In the next chapter we'll probably slam the gas pedal and start progressing the story a bit more. I think we've had enough setup and vague clues already. :)
> 
> Thank you everyone who have read, kudos'd and commented! I realise this probably isn't a fic that'll interest that many people in this fandom, but I'm glad it's not a total waste of words. Have a great time and stay safe, everyone!


	5. Burn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now they were getting somewhere...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was supposed to have things happening here, but it ended up being another chapter setting things up.

_Alixia Karis and the man known in Alixia’s safehouse number 14 as just Felix, looked at each other over a desk that had been battered by both angry fists and the gentler hands of time. Alixia had interlaced her fingers and now regarded Felix with an expression that managed to be both gentle and critical at the same time. Felix met her eyes shyly._

_“I have to start this by saying how grateful I am for this chance.”_

_“I like to believe that everyone deserves a second chance,” Alixia said, “As long as they truly want to change. I wouldn’t have let you stay here if I’d thought you had sinister intentions.”_

_She smiled wryly._

_“Though I admit that I’ve been telling the security to keep a close eye on you at all times.”_

_“I understand.”_

_“Why did you want to see me?”_

_Felix took a deep breath and straightened his posture._

_“The people here… they seem very lost. They’re strong, and I admire them, but I’ve noticed that they’re still scared, and they don’t seem to know what their lives should be like. That’s why they stay here even when they want to leave.”_

_“You have to understand that many of us lost everything when we awakened and were immediately deemed enemies of humanity,” Alixia said, and Felix lowered his head in shame._

_“I’m sorry… I just meant… I’ve been wanting to do something to help them.”_

_“Oh? What did you have in mind?”_

_Felix wrung his hands, suddenly afraid of this woman. But he had come this far, so he couldn’t really stop now, could he?_

_“How much would it help if you could have your flames back?” he asked, “If you could be yourselves again and maybe… let other idiots like me see that you having the flames wasn’t the real problem?”_

_Because it really hadn’t been. Yes, fire was destructive. Yes, people had died, and that couldn’t be ignored. However, the worst of the deaths hadn’t happened when the Burnish had awakened, but rather after the non-Burnish had lashed out against them. In the midst of death, it had been easy to forget that the Burnish had been victims of what could have been seen as a mutation, something they couldn’t help. The better response would have been to try to find ways to live with it and to help the Burnish harness their newfound powers for something constructive. But people had too often feared others for absolute nonsense reasons as well – and too many of them still did – so it had been no surprise that they had resorted to fear when faced with something with the potential to destroy. They had pushed the Burnish away, in most cases with violence._ That _had been the problem that had really made everything escalate to the point that fixing it could take lifetimes._

_“Well, the fire returning would probably make a lot of people very happy,” Alixia said, “And a lot of people very unhappy, which would make them want to hurt us again. At this point, the damage has been done and we’re just trying to make the best of what we have.”_

_“What if… the fire returned in secret?”_

_“Are you still speaking hypothetically at this point?” Alixia asked and narrowed her eyes, “Because this sounds oddly specific.”_

_Felix shifted in his seat nervously._

_“Well… I think this is the moment I need to tell you a bit more about what I used to work on.”_

* * *

_Find…_

_Home…_

_Burn…_

How many days had it been?

She should have gone back to their meeting spot already… when?

Was Terri waiting for her? For how long…?

Shit… the flames were too loud again.

_BURNBRIGHTER_

She had known that running away before she had fully recovered from the merge was stupid. And Terri had already been feeling ill… but no one else was going to leave, so it had had to be them. No one else had wanted to admit that pretending they weren’t being held prisoner was just making things worse.

She needed to move. But…

_Burnbright_

…it was so difficult. She was too warm. The flames didn’t want to properly settle. Maybe because they were scared.

_Burnfindhome_

The Promare didn’t speak. Not really. They also weren’t anything a human could understand even when they were one with them. They didn’t even know what it was about the Burnish that made them resonate with the Promare. But they still heard them, their calls, usually focused only on burning, because that was what they had been born to do.

Was she thinking about the Promare or the Burnish?

_Findhome_

No, that’s right.

She remembered how they had wanted to burn before too. But now… now there was something else. They needed to burn, of course, but they also needed to… stop being broken.

It had made sense at some point. But now they were too loud, and she was too tired.

* * *

When Lio Fotia had lost his flames, he – like most of the Burnish – had been completely unsure of what he had been left with. Who was he without the constant call to burn? Who was he now that the physical fighting and running was coming to an end and they needed to fight with words and politics instead?

At first, the answer had been fragmented and unsure at best. He’d passed the phase when most teens searched for themselves by spending that time knowing that he’d either save as many of his people as he could or die trying, because someone had to. And because one of the few things he had known about himself before and after losing his flames was that he wanted to protect other people.

He supposed that was as good a start as any. But after the worst of the dust had settled, after he had found himself in the endearing and baffling company of Galo Thymos more often than not, and after somewhat settling down in a home, he had realised that constructing a self was more complicated when one suddenly had options. Or when one suddenly wasn’t constantly struggling for survival.

He had soon known that he quite liked having a bed and indoor plumbing, but he supposed that wasn’t really a part of an identity so much as it was just appreciating a few basic luxuries he hadn’t had in a long time. He liked fresh food – though he had taken one look at a butcher shop, seen broken pieces of once living beings who were being sold to people to fuel their bodies, made a few connections in his head, felt sick, and then stuck to vegetables and grains and things made to look like meat without really being it. He liked archery and motorbikes and bellamy shirts and clothes with lots of buckles – though he’d known _those_ things before he’d settled down. He liked books and jazz and symphonic metal and watching old _kaiju_ movies with Galo. He liked _a lot_ about Galo; he liked how he made him remember that there were good people in this world too, or how enthusiastic he got when he rambled on about historical firefighters and their Matoi flags, or how he was unapologetically himself all the time.

What he _didn’t_ like was injustice, systemic oppression, and the suffering of those who just wanted to exist without bothering anyone. He didn’t like making speeches, especially if they were about explaining to others that they were being ignorant. He didn’t like mass media, and he also didn’t like sitting in therapy or still getting nightmares. Especially the kind of nightmares that made him wake up gasping for air and thinking that his limbs had burned off of his body. Which was exactly how he woke up that night, and that very much sucked.

It took him a distressing moment to remember where he was. He had managed to roll off the couch he had been sleeping on, and was now on the floor of Burning Rescue HQ. A quick glance at the clock told him that it was only three a.m. Lucia was still asleep, and even Galo had managed to miraculously not wake up to Lio executing an instinctive combat roll right next to and partially on him. Shit like this was why Lio preferred to sleep between Galo and the back of the couch if they ever fell asleep together on one. And another thing was that Galo was like a bunker, a safe and warm barrier against the world.

Lio felt a bit guilty about that sometimes. Survivor guilt, he supposed. Ever since they had found Terri, he had been slipping back into it. How did he deserve to be safe when others were still hiding or missing? How did he have what could already count as a pretty good foundation for life – with a home and a bed and a freakin’ _music playlist_ – when so many of the people he was supposed to protect were still completely lost and confused, or worse?

It was thoughts like that that kept Lio awake now. That and the nightmare, but mostly the thoughts. It was thoughts like that that made him not try to go back to sleep but rather trudge to Lucia’s huge computer that still showed video feed from different parts of the city. It was mostly just rectangles all over the place, with a filter of heat-vision blue-yellow-red that hurt Lio’s tired eyes. But he didn’t really care about pain. If he was about to live a comfortable life, he’d at least do everything he could to make sure as many as possible could also do the same.

He got a cup of coffee from the coffee vending machine near the wall and sat down in Lucia’s chair. He stared until he didn’t know what he was staring at anymore, and almost spilled his coffee when he heard Galo whisper:

“Hey! This _wasn’t_ what we agreed to!”

Galo had woken up after all, and he was standing right behind Lio with his hands on his hips.

“Nightmare,” Lio said before Galo could start another speech about how his fingernails would probably fall off if he kept going like this, “And… well… it wasn’t great.”

“Oh,” Galo’s expression softened, “Wanna talk about it?”

“Not really.”

“Okay.”

Galo got a cup of coffee too and sat down in a spare chair.

“At least tell me if you’re okay or not.”

“I’m fine.”

“Uh-huh… sure. You know, I’ve been thinking…”

“That sounds ominous,” Lio said in an amused tone, “What is it?”

Galo set his coffee on Lucia’s desk, put his elbows next to the cup and leaned to his hands.

“I’ve been thinking that you’ve been kinda acting like you think you’re back on the run. Like… not stopping for anything, not taking care of yourself. That’s not good.”

“People are missing,” Lio said, sharper than he had meant, “Someone _has_ to find them.”

“Yeah, I know. I get that one too. You’re saving lives, and that’s great! Go for it! In fact, we’ll do it together, right? It’s just… our life… it’s really good too.”

“It’s our life now?” Lio asked and sounded oddly fragile even in his own ears.

“Yeah,” Galo said as if it was the simplest thing in the world, “Our home, our talks, our coffee! You know, our everything! I love it a lot. It makes me happy. And I… well, I think that’s worth keeping safe too.”

“Galo!” Lio groaned, “You can’t say cheesy things like that at this hour!”

“What _is_ a cheesy hour, then?” Galo threw his arms up towards the ceiling, “I wanna talk about this now, before you drive off somewhere or crash because you don’t sleep!”

Lio sighed. Emotions. Again, he should about them. It wasn’t that hard. It wasn’t!

“I… like this too,” he said, “I don’t want it to end either. But… I’m in that space again, where I feel like I shouldn’t have any of this. Not while there’s still so much wrong here.”

He had said that so many times. Galo had always retorted that Lio would help no one by being miserable when he didn’t have to. That he was doing so much to help others. That he was a person too and he didn’t have to deny himself the bare minimum of normal life. That he wasn’t taking anyone’s space, because he was sharing Galo’s. That he too mattered. And that he didn’t have to shoulder any of this alone. He’d heard it all so many times and maybe one day he’d believe that. Galo didn’t say any of that now, maybe because he knew that they’d gone over this so many times. Lio sighed.

“Sorry,” he said, “I… can’t process any of it right now. Our life, I mean. We have to find the missing people first.”

“Then let’s make a deal!” Galo said, “After we find those people and save the day again, we’ll do something nice together. Something special!”

“Like what?”

“Like… go on a vacation? Wait, that would mean no work… but that’s good sometimes! Yeah. We can make it! Or we could learn a new skill. Or adopt a cat!”

That one rattled Lio enough to actually think about his (their) life for a second. Sure, they were Galo de Lion and Lio de Galon, and they lived together and all, but…

“Wh-you’d adopt a cat with me?” he managed, “That’s… a lot.”

“I’d adopt anything with you!” Galo said happily, “Well? What d’you say? Deal?”

He was so bright. So warm. So safe. So… everything that was good in this world. Lio laughed so he wouldn’t do something stupid. Like start crying because he really hadn’t slept enough to keep his sappy-wonderful Galo -tolerance up.

“Okay,” he said, “Once this is over, let’s ride out to the desert, and I’ll show you the stars. The real stars, not this light pollution saturated nonsense we get here in the city.”

“Ooh, that’s a good one!” Galo said, “And then we can also go to the beach! I can teach you how to surf!”

“You know how to surf?”

“No! But we can learn together. How’s that?”

“I’d like that a lot.”

“Good. And that means that we’ll both have to stay okay through all this,” Galo beamed at him, “So take care of yourself.”

Lio smiled.

“Fine. Deal.”

They bumped fists over the corner of Lucia’s desk.

* * *

Ending injustice and irrational hatred was much slower than it ever should be. Sometimes it seemed almost impossible. Old habits were hard to break even when most people agreed that they should. And there were always people who believed that it was okay to keep the old, harmful ways because they were convenient to _them_ , or because they were afraid. And to those affected, injustice always left scars. Physical ones, psychological and emotional ones, and ones that ran all the way through entire societies. Too many people affected by hatred fell through the cracks long after things should have started to get better.

In Promepolis, there were still many Burnish who were afraid, homeless or lost. Some of those lost Burnish made their temporary sanctuaries in the scars underneath the city of Promepolis. A high-tech city state had thousands of tunnels running under it to keep ugly power generators, powerlines, pipes, their maintenance systems and the underpaid overseers of those systems out of view. Many of these tunnels had collapsed or been otherwise ruined during the battle two years prior. An underground spaceship had tried to take flight, and before that, a dragon made of fire and rage of one anguished Mad Burnish leader had torn through the sewers and the maintenance tunnels. It had left some of the tunnel walls melted, some of the concrete underneath cracked, and sometimes even quite deep underground potholes in its wake.

The tunnels were warm and dry, and some claimed they could still feel the fire in the walls. And they were good for getting around without going on the streets, where hateful people might pass them by. Many Burnish knew where a good, discreet maintenance hatch could be found in nearly every city district. Most who spent time underground didn’t live there, because they usually at least had a spot in a shelter, but they found it a safe place nonetheless. This was why the tunnels were also part of the Mad Burnish’s search routes, doubly so now that they were fairly sure that a Burnish was hiding somewhere in the city, possibly on fire. The Mad Burnish were as thorough as they could, but the tunnels were numerous and labyrinthine, and they needed to dodge maintenance workers who would gladly drive them out if they came across them. But to their credit, they were on the right track, and they had a couple of times got almost dramatically close to a small, discreet cubbyhole that occasionally sparked with flames.

With a search so thorough, it should have been just a matter of time before they found whom they were looking for. But sometimes the world and its probabilities didn’t work like that. This was a universe where Earth’s core had managed to overlap with a star from another dimension. This was a universe that had been saved by a Deus X Machina, all because two people had been dropped into just the right lake at just the right moment. Sometimes probability lent itself to absolute, glorious nonsense in the world’s favour, and sometimes it completely screwed over perfectly well-intentioned people.

Because the moment when the person hiding in the cubbyhole finally managed to move, she wasn’t found by Mad Burnish, but instead spooked into running by a group of four men, who had arrived in the city in a banged-up off-road vehicle with a suspiciously large amount of storage space in the back. They had been looking for her, because they had been paid to do that by people who didn’t talk much about their intentions, but did have enough cash so that these men didn’t care. They had three orders: get the two Burnish who were on fire, retrieve what they had stolen, and don’t kill anyone nor cause a fuss. Maybe that was four orders, because a fuss could be a lot of things other than just killing.

Phedra Deo ran away from the four men, faster than she should be able to with fire roaring in her ears and weakness trying to drag her down. She ran until she managed to lose them and climb through a service hatch behind a small pub. She hid in an alley, holding her breath and trying to keep the flames down even as her heart hammered in her chest.

For what felt like hours, she didn’t dare move. She felt weak again, too tired after running and hiding for days with barely any food or water. She mentally cursed herself for choosing this as a hiding place. She was too much in the open, and now that she had stopped, her energy was gone again.

In a moment of heart-stopping terror, a figure stepped into the mouth of the alley. It wasn’t any of the four men who had been after her, but she wasn’t really comforted at all. No one should see her, aside from the other Mad Burnish. They might at least be able to help her somehow. She had tried to send some kind of signal to them so many times by now, but it had pretty much boiled down to her lying feverish and delirious in a maintenance tunnel and trying to somehow spontaneously manifest telepathic abilities.

She heard someone talking to someone else. Maybe on the phone, because she couldn’t hear the response. Or could she? The fire was too loud again. She tried to hide deeper into the darkness, among the garbage containers and other junk that littered the place. But a few moments later she saw the glimmer of heat-vision goggles on someone’s face, and then a hand reaching out to her.

It was… almost friendly.

She hoped it was a Mad Burnish. Or just another Burnish whom she’d know.

It wasn’t, but she smiled at her very gently.

“It’s okay,” the woman said and her black-purple hair cascaded over her shoulder as she reached her hand further towards her, “I’m Burnish as well. I’m a friend. I can help you.”

* * *

“Okay, we’ve got something,” said Meis as soon as he and Gueira were let into Galo’s (and Lio’s?) apartment.

Those were always good words to start a meeting with. Except in this case they were bittersweet, because the “something” wasn’t exactly good news. But at least it was news. It had been two more days after Terri had been found, and there was still no sign of the fire vigilante. There was no sign of Phedra either, though if Lio would have to make hypotheses, he might tentatively guess that the vigilante and Phedra were the same person. _If_ Terri’s message meant that Phedra was also around somewhere. _If_ none of the other missing Burnish had also wandered back into the city. _If_ any of this was what it seemed. Though that last part may not help much, because what it seemed right now was a mess.

While the rest of the Mad Burnish had continued the search, Meis and Gueira had looked into Alixia. At least she was here, and she had a past. She knew people, which was an asset for her, but also meant that there were a lot of possible sources of information for anyone who might want to dig up her dirty secrets.

They sat around Galo’s small dining table and Meis immediately opened his cheap tablet.

“Okay, so we’ve needed to sift through a lot of bullshit, but it was definitely worth it.”

“I sure _hope_ it was,” Gueira said and shuddered, “I needed to talk to this really weird creep. I think he had an Alixia shrine hidden somewhere, and a voodoo doll made out of her hair.”

“And that one didn’t even go anywhere,” Meis said and lowered his head so his hair mostly hid his maybe a bit too amused smile at the memory, “But _this_ bunch of rumours is where it’s at. Look.”

He showed a picture of a shabby underground room with a small group of people huddled in it.

“This is from one of Karis’s safehouses,” Meis explained, “Just called number fourteen – seems she’s never been too creative with the names. Located about three hundred miles south from here. Shouldn’t be anything special, except it totally is, because about eight months ago, it was mysteriously emptied and closed down. Karis has tried to be all hush-hush about it, but we got hold of a guy who used to live there. He left before anything started, but he used to be in touch with one of the people still living in there, and he heard that weird shit started going down.”

“Like what?” Lio asked.

“Talks about getting the Promare back,” Gueira piped up, “And yeah, no, that alone’s not weird, but apparently it sounded like something like that had actually _happened_ there. And sometime after that, _boom_ , place empty, closes down, Karis claims everyone’s been relocated.”

“Except I’m going to assume they weren’t.”

“Bingo!” Meis swiped a list of notes to his tablet screen, “About eighteen people, just _gone_. Sure, that place _was_ emptying anyway, and most of those who were still in it didn’t have a whole lot of people who’d report them missing, but they haven’t turned up anywhere either.”

“So people go missing from one of Karis’s safehouses and Karis covers it up. Then she moves here right after our people start to go missing too. _And_ there’s been weird shit maybe involving fire,” Gueira listed with his fingers, “Sounds pretty damn fishy to me.”

“Definitely,” Lio said and scanned through the notes, “What are these names?”

“Oh, our source couldn’t name all the ones who disappeared, but he was pretty sure these were some of them,” Meis said, “I can send you these. They’re all we got, but it’s plenty considering how Karis wanted it all covered up.”

Lio was impressed. Gueira may be a hothead, but he got things done. And Meis may sometimes talk like a salty internet commenter, but he was actually smart and efficient. They had come through once again and then some. He read through the notes again, and this time of the names made him pause.

“Eon Morado… Is he related to Jace Morado, one of our missing people?”

“Uhh… maybe?”

“Wait, I remember now,” Lio got up and started pacing, “He’s Jace’s uncle. Nia’s brother. That’s… funny. We have to ask Nia if she has heard from him.”

“Yeah.”

“I can do that right away. But this all is… wow. Alixia Karis is _definitely_ involved in some kind of mess. But why? Why’d she take part in something like this after years of protecting the Burnish?”

“Maybe it all _is_ a part of some protection scheme?” Meis suggested, “Or then she’s a corrupt traitor who’s just been playing everyone with her charity act. Who knows?”

“We have to keep digging,” Lio said, “We need people on watch at her workplace and her home.”

“You got it.”

Finally, they might be getting somewhere.

* * *

Nia Morado wasn’t used to being alone. She considered herself lucky that she had come out of the worst of Burnish oppression and the Parnassus incident with most of her family intact. Jace’s father was gone, but he had been gone for years already, and that loss wasn’t so raw anymore. And she’d had Jace, her baby boy, who had started burning as a child and never stopped, not even when the literal flames had turned into metaphorical ones. Jace wasn’t a baby anymore, of course. He was almost a man, and he was desperately looking for himself. Or had been. Now _she_ was looking for him, and it was the worst thing she had ever had to do.

She and Jace had had an argument, and it had been terrible. They’d lately had arguments fairly often, but Nia had thought that it was a part of both growing up and having to settle into a new life. Jace had been shaped by the flames, much like many of those who had awakened young. To have that taken away was… well, it had been difficult, to say the least.

Nia’s phone rang, and Nia answered at once. It could be news about Jace, or about the missing in general. Please, let it be…

“Hello?”

_“Nia? Hi, this is Lio. I’m sorry to bother you, but I need to ask you something.”_

So not news of Jace, then. If it was, Lio would have told her right away. Nia sighed.

“Ask away.”

_“Your brother is named Eon, right?”_

“Yes.”

_“When was the last time you saw him?”_

Nia thought about it for a moment, trying to force her memory to recall anything else besides Jace and how he was not here.

“It was about a month ago,” she finally said.

_“What?!”_

“Yes. He visited us. He looked really tired. We had tea and talked. He said he’d be in the city for a while, but when I told him to stay with us for longer, he said he couldn’t.”

 _“This was_ a month _ago?”_

“Yes.”

_“So… soon before Jace disappeared, right?”_

“I… yes. Why?”

_“I don’t know yet. Have you heard from your brother?”_

“No…” Nia sighed. Eon had slipped her mind, to be honest, because Jace had consumed all of her time and her capacity to worry. Eon was a grown man, and he had been gone for so long anyway, but Jace… “Like I said, he left soon after his arrival. Jace and I… we had an argument. I think it was awkward for Eon to stay. I understand that. The next morning Jace stormed out, and then… well, you know.”

_“Did you call your brother when Jace disappeared?”_

“He told me he lost his phone some time before he came to the city, and he can’t afford a new one yet. But if Jace had gone to him, surely he would have brought him back?”

_“I… see. Did you know where he was before he came to visit?”_

“Well, I assumed he was still in the safehouse he’d been staying in. He didn’t talk much about what was going on with him.”

_“Did he seem odd to you in any way?”_

“He was… like I said, he was tired,” Nia frowned at the walls, “He did have this look, like he was being hunted. But we all still sadly look like that sometimes. Why do you ask, Lio? Has something happened?”

_“Not necessarily. We’re trying to figure something out, and your brother’s name came up. So you don’t know where he is now?”_

“No. I don’t.”

_“Can you tell me what he looks like?”_

“He’s around my age, got greying blond hair, brown eyes, and he’s pretty tall and strong. Oh, and he has a small scar under his eye. “

_“Okay. Thank you. I promise I’ll let you know as soon as we have more information.”_

“Wait, Lio! Is… is Eon okay? Don’t tell me my whole family…”

 _“I’m sorry, Nia,”_ Lio said, and he did sound heartbreakingly sincere, _“But I really don’t know yet. I promise I’ll do everything I can to make sense of this. And to keep everyone safe.”_

“I… I know. Thank you.”

_“Take care.”_

Nia hung up and felt the floor underneath her open up into a metaphorical void she had been drifting in and out of ever since Jace had disappeared. She slumped into a chair and burst into tears.

In another part of Promepolis, Lio Fotia put his phone down and buried his face in his hands.

* * *

They now had three problems: finding the missing Burnish, figuring out what was up with Alixia, and solving the mystery of safehouse fourteen and especially Eon Morado, who had allegedly disappeared but also shown up later in Promepolis. It could have indicated that nothing had been wrong with Alixia’s safehouse, and that the rumours of people going missing were just rumours after all. But Lio kept calling all over the place, and none of the others who had disappeared from safehouse fourteen had resurfaced anywhere. And no one seemed to know anything about Eon Morado either, other than Alixia. Lio had asked her as well. She had told him that all of the people from that safehouse had been relocated to other safe places, but also claimed that she didn’t exactly remember where. It was definitely bullshit, since she had confessed to pretty much stalking people just for ever being in her houses. Sure, she could have claimed she didn’t remember them because she wanted to protect her people, but… Lio didn’t buy it. Was he being paranoid because he didn’t like the way Alixia’s talked to him? Maybe. Or maybe Alixia really was up to something.

It only took a couple of days of dedicated spying to find out that Alixia Karis had stopped going to her office and now stayed home in her spacious apartment. It also could have been nothing, or it could have been a sign of something weird going on. As far as Lio knew, she had been working either in her office or in her new Burnish shelter almost all the time ever since she had moved here. Lio had asked Lucia to fly her drones very closely over Alixia’s home, but it had turned out that it had been built during the time when wealthier people had demanded incredible heat insulation and fireproofing, which meant that very little heat signals could get in or out. But at some point Lucia _had_ managed to get a reading that might have indicated that something could have been burning in there.

“It’s not enough to count as proper evidence,” Lio sighed when they were again holding a meeting, this time on Galo’s couch, “But I’m definitely still suspicious.”

“What’s our next move, then?” Meis asked.

“I’d prefer if we got someone into Alixia’s apartment to do some looking around, but I’m not about to ask her if I can visit her home,” Lio wrinkled his nose in disgust, “I don’t want anyone to get… ideas. Our best bet would have been to ask the police to legally check that place – as much as I _hate_ that idea – but apparently they need warrants now.”

“Wait, they brought back _warrants_?” Gueira asked, “And they’re _using_ them? What the hell kind of unicorn land have we ended up in?”

“Normally I’d say it’s a good development,” Lio said, “But they’re still only figuring them out, and it’s probably going to be slow. Also we don’t exactly have good enough evidence to actually get them to search her home. Yet. We could wait and keep an eye on her, but this is getting so big that I don’t want to waste any more time or manpower on her, especially if it turns out to be nothing.”

“So, what do we do?” Gueira asked and sounded a bit too enthusiastic when he suggested, “Breaking and entering?”

“No! We should set an example as…” Lio sighed again, “Okay, yes, breaking and entering. But _carefully_. It’s probably safest if it happens when Alixia’s not there, so her charity dinner is a good time. She hasn’t cancelled that, at least.”

“You’re still going?” Meis asked, “You sure that’s safe?”

“She wants me to trust her,” Lio said, “Besides, it could be an opportunity to talk to her face-to-face, and I doubt she’d risk ruining her reputation by starting anything there. I can wait for a good moment, take her by surprise and discreetly ask a few questions, watch her reaction.”

“Yeah, but…” Gueira frowned, “What if that whole party’s also some kind of weird plot?”

“Of course it’s a plot. It’s a plot to get selfish people feel good about giving away money for a good cause. And then taking that money. Hopefully for a good cause.”

“I meant what if it’s something weirder?”

“Like what? She’s going to spirit the probably really famous guests away from a prominent building?”

“Who knows at this point? This is getting so weird that anything’s possible,” Meis pointed out.

“Okay, true,” Lio admitted, “I wasn’t going to just go there without backup, anyway. Mad Burnish can be stationed outside, and I can ask if Burning Rescue would be willing to get themselves invited as extra security. And Galo will be there as my plus one anyway.”

Gueira nodded slowly.

“Sounds pretty good. You want us on guard duty?”

“No. I want you on breaking and entering -duty.”

“Sweet.”

“But be quick and don’t break anything,” Lio said sternly, “And don’t get identified. This could be a dead end, and if it is, I don’t want any of us getting in trouble for nothing.”

He glared at the pile of notes they had spread all over the living room.

“I know this is a bit of a desperate and probably stupid idea, but… we have to do something.”

“It sounds like a good idea to me,” Gueira shrugged.

“Yeah, but to be fair, none of us have been doing this kind of proper detective shit before,” Meis pointed out, “Sometimes I almost miss the time when we were mostly fighting cartoonishly evil cops. At least they were easier to figure out.”

“Times change, dude,” Gueira said, “At least now we have lives and all.”

“Okay, yeah, true,” Meis smiled, “Now _that’s_ a luxury.”

They all were quiet for a moment. Maybe in contemplation, or just to appreciate the fact that they could have this conversation within four walls, on an actual couch.

“So,” Lio then said, “Next Sunday. Let’s figure Alixia Karis out then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...how do prepositions work? Sigh... Also how does pacing work? In the next chapter stuff is going to hit the fan so hard that it's probably gonna be jarring. I don't know...
> 
> Well, I hope it's not terrible. I hope you have a good time, and stay safe, everyone!


	6. Flashpoint

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When things start happening, they REALLY start happening. There's a boring party, a chase that is maybe not so boring, and answers that are finally found.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so it seems that the site didn't want to put my fic to the top when I uploaded chapter 5 yesterday, so you probably wanna make sure you've read that too so things flow better here. Hopefully the list works now, and hopefully other fics didn't suffer the same as this one did.
> 
> Content Warning: This chapter contains descriptions of injuries (not very graphic), and there's a gun in there too. Also some scifi bullshit written by a person with only a very basic understanding of energy and stuff.

_The building was dark and far away from everything. Alixia had sometimes used it for some of her discreet business endeavours, but for the last year, it had stood abandoned, windows shaded, walls slowly getting covered with cobwebs. But now she was here. And so was Felix, and a bunch of Alixia’s security personnel from her safehouses._

_Alixia stared at what looked like a gleaming black cube Felix had set on the table in the middle of the room._

_“How… how is this possible? How did you get this back?”_

_“Well, I brought it from my old workplace,” Felix said, “But if you mean how we managed to draw the Promare back to this dimension, we didn’t. These were already here. They never got the memo that they were supposed to leave.”_

_Felix was much more confident here, Alixia noticed. He had a gleam in his eyes, a will to set something right. A higher calling was an incredible confidence boost. It didn’t matter if it really was higher or not; what mattered was that Felix believed it was. And why not? It certainly sounded poetic. Give the Burnish back what they had lost, atone for your work at the Foresight Foundation. That was probably why Felix was doing this. Until now, Alixia had thought that Felix was just a regular, misinformed non-Burnish needing shelter and wanting to really know those he regretted mistreating. But now, after Felix had asked if he could show her his work, and it had turned out to be_ this _? If he hadn’t been currently presenting what seemed to be an actual, real Promare, Alixia would have booted him out on the spot. But she could hear the flames whispering. And she missed them._

_“How did you keep them here?” she asked._

_“Short version?” Felix shrugged his shoulders, “Well, they’re energy, but they also have a tangible form. When they were bound to their human hosts, they were physically present while still remaining linked to the Promare mass in the earth’s core. We just… managed to trap some of them in a way that cut that link. This here is basically a small fusion reactor, but we loop that energy back to keep this thing locked and to keep the reaction going. I think the Promare in this one has gone mostly dormant, though.”_

_He looked at the cube fondly._

_“I was supposed to study these. But Foresight pulled the plug on this project years ago, said it was useless. We just never got around to taking that facility down. So we didn’t actually_ try _to keep anything here. Well, not like this, at least.”_

_“So this was a happy accident?” Alixia asked._

_“Yes, you could say that. And now, I’d like to know if… if this could help your people.”_

_There were many moments in people’s lives when they were met with a plan that they_ knew _could be unbelievably stupid or go wrong in so many ways._

_And sometimes, those plans were far too tempting to say no to._

* * *

Alixia Karis regretted surprisingly few things in her life, aside from the people who had burned to ashes after she had failed to look after them. But did she regret what she had decided nearly a year ago? She wasn’t sure. Yes, it hadn’t gone well, but if she managed to fix things, maybe it would ultimately be okay. Although, she supposed, it would depend on what she’d find. And judging by the condition in which the woman – whom her men had found and whom she had then come to pick up – was right now, she feared it wouldn’t be anything good.

The woman hadn’t woken up for more than a few incoherent moments. Alixia had brought her to her apartment, put her in the fireproofed panic room almost all the more expensive apartments in Promepolis had been built with. She had called a Burnish doctor who could keep quiet about what she’d seen, and she had concluded that the woman was dehydrated and possibly weak from hunger, but also that the fire inside her wasn’t exactly as it should have been. Although to be fair, what it should have been at this point was gone. Not _should have_ as in it was right, but as in it had happened and life had to go on no matter how unfair it felt. Apparently there was nothing to do but to give her liquids and nutrients and let her rest.

Alixia had stayed home after that whenever she could, just in case her guest woke up. She had to be one of those who had gone missing from Promepolis. If she would wake up for long enough to tell her where the others were, and if Alixia could keep her safe and hidden, this all could still be salvaged.

She knew that the woman’s family probably wanted to hear from her. As did Lio. She had promised him she would tell him if she heard anything about the missing. But this was _her_ responsibility. It needed to be handled by someone who knew what was going on, and not by an outsider who would no doubt come to conclusions that wouldn’t help anyone. Besides, if others found out that she had been involved, everything she had worked for could come crashing down. She couldn’t do that to her people. They didn’t deserve to suffer because of her mistakes.

If only she could also cancel that stupid charity event and stay home even then. But that would be too suspicious. Lio already seemed to be watching her a bit too closely, what with him running around asking very specific questions. He was maybe a bit too clever for his own good. Or then maybe not clever enough to realise that this was none of his business.

It was always so sad when children started acting up.

* * *

The day of Alixia’s dinner had started out uneventful on the surface, but everyone was still already getting hyped up with adrenaline and ready for something to happen. Galo had only barely managed to put on his brand new three piece suit because he too was vibrating with energy. Lio had watched that for about fifteen minutes before he had let out a long-suffering sigh and walked over to help Galo with his bowtie.

“Why does this suit need so many _layers_?” Galo whined and tugged at his sleeves.

“For you, _one_ shirt is too many layers,” Lio said and straightened Galo’s bowtie one more time, “It’s just for tonight.”

“Shirts are perfectly fine. It’s not _my_ fault they’re so flammable.”

“Is that what happened to your last suit? Because I remember you having one, and then it was just gone.”

“Ah… yeah. There was this hamster, and I needed to save him! Also I didn’t _know_ that one of those bottles was pure alcohol.”

“That… I don’t even know if more context would help, or make it worse,” Lio glanced at the clock on the wall, “Oh, we need to go or we’re going to be late. Do you have everything? Phone? Wireless earpiece? Freeze gun?”

“Yep, yep, and yep. Everything’s all set for a night of badass secret agent action!”

Lio finally left Galo’s bowtie alone and turned his focus on his own suit. He smoothed out his jacket, checked his pockets, and adjusted his hair. He looked like he was going to a funeral in all black and white, but it was very on brand for Lio. He looked both beautiful and badass, if also a bit tense. He was still wearing his gloves, and Galo knew that he had put a pair of skintight, fireproof pants under his slightly looser dress slacks. It was so infuriating to know that all this had to be a part of his regular preparations for any public event, because people were hateful idiots. Lio squared his shoulders, checked something that may have been a knife hidden in his sleeve, and then set his face into a headstrong, cold default expression.

“Okay. Let’s go.”

Burning Rescue Unit 3 had indeed managed to weasel their way in as extra security. It hadn’t even been difficult. One call to Alixia, and she had been on board. She had been _delighted_ by the extra public approval that having the hero team of Promepolis watching over them would bring. The fact that Alixia had been so okay with outsiders watching the dinner had made Lio point out that even if she was up to something, she probably wasn’t going to try anything today, other than making people part with their money for charity. Still, it was good to be prepared for anything at this point.

Lucia was waiting for them outside their home, in one of their smaller rescue mobiles. She had put a black suit jacket over a short, neon pink dress and striped stockings, which probably wasn’t necessary considering Lucia probably wouldn’t even set foot in the building. The plan was that Lucia would stay in the rescue mobile, ready to man the water and ice cannons if needed, keep their communication channels open, as well as monitor her drones, which were filming the perimeter. Aina would park her rescue jet on the roof of the building and be prepared for emergency evacuations that would probably never come. Ignis, Remi, and Varys wouldn’t be on the site, because they had other work to do as well, and having an entire firefighting unit for what was supposed to be just a charity dinner with minimal pyrotechnics (Galo didn’t like the sound of _any_ pyrotechnics, but there was apparently a trained professional already watching them, and fire was still very much a Burnish culture thing, so it was kind of unavoidable) would be overkill and probably make some people uncomfortable.

The event was held in a fancy skyscraper that was pretty small by Promepolis standards. Only about fifty floors high, but still big enough to have a helicopter landing site on top. Lucia parked the car and Lio and Galo hopped out. They took a glass elevator up to the penthouse, which mostly consisted of a huge meeting space for people who were willing to spend more money for a single evening than Galo made in a year. Large windows gave a pretty cool view over the streets and a park nearby. And despite the building being relatively small, they were still high enough to see over some of the skyline and to the ruins of the Parnassus, which was still slowly being taken down. It was starting to look like a weird, giant fossil of an ancient monster. Hopefully it would soon be gone entirely. Galo really didn’t like looking at it, and he knew that many others liked it even less.

He turned away from the window and focused on the people around them. Galo had been to a few of these fancypants parties before. After the Parnassus incident, many had wanted to invite both him and Lio to a whole bunch of different gatherings. It was a part of the whole badass trophy status -thing. Galo hadn’t liked it that much. Sure, there was sometimes pretty fun entertainment, and the food was mostly really good, but they were just… boring most of the time. And people were usually talking about things he didn’t understand, and they liked to stare. Not in an impressed, fawning crowd -way Galo liked, but more like he was some kind of animal in a zoo. And sometimes they stared at Lio in a way that made Lio very annoyed or creeped out, and Galo wanted to punch them for that. Or at least yell at them to stop.

He could hope that this one would be a bit different. At least now he had a mission. If things got too dull, he could always start playing agent movie music in his head.

One interesting thing he noticed right away was that some of the people looked a bit wide-eyed, as if they had never been to a place like this. After a while, and a few whispers from Lio, Galo realised that about half of the guests were Burnish, possibly invited to make the non-Burnish people think of them as people. When Galo looked a bit closer, he realised that the crowd had instinctively divided into two: Burnish on one side of the room, talking amongst themselves and stealing worried glances everywhere, and the non-Burnish, who were looking like they had too much money and had already adopted the creepy zoo-stares.

It was… not very cheery.

The woman who was clearly Alixia Karis glided across the empty aisle left between tables and awkward people. She had a tiny purse, a simple silver dress, and what looked like an artsy necklace made out of pink glass shards. They fell on her shoulders and the front of her dress and were hopefully made so that they wouldn’t cut her. She smiled and shook their hands.

“Welcome,” she said, “I’m so glad you could both make it. You must be Galo Thymos.”

“That’s me!” Galo said at once, “The one and only, famous Galo Thymos, at your service!”

“I’m Alixia Karis,” Alixia smiled and then turned to Lio, “I hope you enjoy the evening. There are plenty of people who want to talk to you. If anyone starts to annoy you too much, let the security know.”

She nodded towards the people lining the walls. They were wearing earpieces, serious suits, and even more serious expressions. She then smiled once more and turned to chat with someone else. Lio’s shoulders had tensed just a bit, but he sighed when Alixia was out of earshot.

“Well, here we go, then,” he said.

Galo braced himself for boredom, and nodded.

* * *

In front of the skyscraper where Alixia Karis’s apartment was located, there was a perfectly trimmed hedgerow. Or well, it had been perfectly trimmed until two lanky people had made a stakeout nest there. They had been sitting there for nearly an hour already, while the sun had steadily been setting behind the too high buildings and dyeing the sky blood red.

“This is so _boring_ ,” Gueira hissed, “Can we go already!”

“Not yet,” Meis said, “We wait a bit longer. I asked one of our boys to take care of the alarms.”

“We’ve got a hacker in Mad Burnish?”

“You didn’t know? It’s Geiger.”

“ _Really_? I thought he just tuned bikes.”

“Everyone needs hobbies, I guess. We didn’t do much finesse-stuff when we were running the show, did we?”

“Yeah, no. You don’t need a hacker to burn shit as a statement.”

“Good times. Well, not really, but you know.”

“Yeah, I do. Hey, what’s up with those guys over there?”

“What?” Meis squinted into the dark. Four people had walked to the building. Two let themselves in while two stayed behind.

“Could be people living there,” Meis said, but didn’t sound very convinced, “Or trouble.”

“I think they’re armed,” Gueira said. They both shared a look, and then Meis called Lio. Just as a heads-up. Except he was met with just beeping.

“Boss isn’t answering,” he whispered, “I’ll call Geiger and tell him not to cut the alarms yet. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

* * *

As far as charity dinners went, it wasn’t the worst. The entertainment wasn’t that bad, the pyrotechnics were mesmerising, the speeches were okay, and the food was good. Not that Lio could really enjoy any of that when the whole event made him uneasy and some of the guests were staring at him like he was an exhibit in a museum. Not to mention that it was so _loud_ in here. It wasn’t the people, really. Most were speaking in hushed voices like they had secrets. But there was a weird white noise behind everything. It had started small but was now steadily growing and giving him a headache. Sometimes he could swear he heard words in the noise. Like whispers…

No. He had to focus. Or at least to tough it out until the event was over. He had quickly concluded that it was best to wait and corner Alixia when the guests were leaving but still close enough that she wouldn’t start anything. Even though Lio had reasons to suspect that Alixia had a whole pile of skeletons in her closet, it wasn’t a sure thing yet. And there was definitely no need to ruin a person’s reputation for possibly no reason.

Despite that noble sentiment, he couldn’t resist following when Alixia saw her phone ring and excused herself to the balcony that encircled the entire top floor. There were security guards near the balcony’s doors, but they were busy watching a man who had already had a bit too much wine and was currently stumbling into chairs. It was simple enough for Lio to slip outside after Alixia, who had walked behind the corner and was speaking heatedly while also trying to keep her voice down.

“Just _get in there_!” she hissed, “I just got an alert that my alarms at home went off! No one’s answering there, so it’s _bad_! Yes! You should already be going! _Don’t_ call the police yet! You need to hide her first!”

She cut her call off with an exasperated groan just as Lio rounded the corner.

“Bad news?” he asked. Alixia let out a small gasp and spun around.

“Lio!” she managed, “I… yes. I think someone broke into my home right now.”

“Oh. That’s awful,” Lio somehow managed to say with a straight face, “Are you cutting the evening short?”

“I… not yet,” she said, “I have people to take care of whatever’s going on there. It would be bad if all this would come crashing down because of some burglar’s terrible timing.”

She tried to smile, but it wasn’t really working as well as before. It looked forced, like a mask desperately trying to stay on.

“That’s admirable, I guess,” Lio said, “You know, I couldn’t help overhearing… what did you mean when you said ‘you need to hide her’? Who’s _she_?”

Alixia opened her mouth, but no words came out. Then, she huffed out a laugh.

“Is this a part of your detective game? I thought you were investigating the missing Burnish, not digging up meaningless gossip.”

“I need to chase any lead I have,” Lio said, “This case is very messy.”

“And now my private life is a lead?” Alixia said.

“Possibly. Why did you lie to me when I asked if you’ve heard anything about the Burnish getting their fire back?”

“I didn’t lie!” Alixia snapped. She took a step forward, “You're just desperately chasing rumours like that because creating an identity without the fire is _too hard_ for you and you’re afraid that you made a mistake when you let the Promare go! So you act out, pretend you can go back, play detective and pick fights because fighting is all you know!”

It shouldn’t hurt. Lio _knew_ who he was. Sort of. In some ways.

“You know,” Alixia said in a voice that was about as warm as an ice age, “I thought you had grown up to be a responsible person. I see I was wrong. I think you’re doing this because you don’t feel like you matter anymore. Because in this world you can’t just _punch_ every problem you see.”

Lio’s hands had clenched into fists again, and he had to focus on breathing through his rage.

“I’m doing this,” he said, “Because _someone has to_.”

“You think so?” Alixia said, and suddenly she looked incredibly sad, “Sometimes, that someone doesn’t have to be you. You are still a child, playing games because you feel that if you stop, you aren’t doing enough. Isn’t that right? But you should know that you _are_ helping the Burnish even now. With what you’ve already done, all you need to do is _exist_. You are a symbol to us, and a pretty face for garnering other people’s interest in our cause. And you keep yelling at people, because some people won’t get it until they hear the same thing a million times. That really _is_ more than enough.”

Was she trying to confuse him into dropping the subject? Because she wasn't even being consistent with her bullshit. Just firing shots in the dark, hoping something hurt. And something did, but Lio would _never_ let her know that. Alixia stepped around Lio, and Lio didn’t dare move in fear that he might actually punch her if he did.

“These games you’re playing could really get dangerous,” Alixia said, “We used to be nearly invulnerable, but we aren’t anymore. So stop before this goes too far and you get hurt. Leave it to the police.”

She took another step towards the door, but then a crash in the distance made her stop. The white noise Lio kept hearing exploded into near-screams, and Lio gasped.

Somewhere across the park, something was burning. Alixia’s phone rang, and she immediately put it to her ear.

“Holy _shit_ was that my apartment?!”

Lio also dug out his phone, saw about eight missed calls from Meis, and hastily called back.

* * *

Alixia Karis’s windows had cracked, and pink and cyan flames were licking the walls. A figure wreathed herself in flames that hardened into an all-black armour, and then she jumped through one of the windows. Her armour didn’t entirely hold against reinforced class, and she fell too many stories but managed to slow her fall with a jet of fire out of her hands. She fell painfully on her knees, but didn’t really even register that. Scraped knees were nothing compared to the glass shards that now protruded from her shoulder, arms and stomach where her armour had shattered.

_Fireburnbrightfind-¨_

_findsafety_

_RUNrunRUNRUNrunRUN_

“Don’t… need… to hear… that,” Phedra panted and yanked the largest shard out. Flames flared from the wounds, knitted them shut while she screamed and pulled out glass as fast as she could. It wasn’t the worst pain she’d ever endured, she reminded herself. And even if it had been, she didn’t have time to stop and wait until it passed. She had to start running. A man ran after her from the behind a corner. One more joined him from a street behind Phedra.

She should have run sooner. She should have called for help.

But she’d been too tired, and the flames were too much. They hadn’t given her room to _think_. Not even now, when they too realised just how scared she was, just how much she needed to get away.

Her hands burned, and fire burst from her fingertips. No. Not now! She shouldn’t-

“Get away from me!” she yelled, “SOMEONE! HELP ME!”

No one replied. There _was_ no one. Just cold buildings. And cars speeding up somewhere close.

And… a spark… something warm… like a beacon.

_Safe…_

_Flames… knowflames_

She shouldn’t be out here… she shouldn’t endanger anyone like this. She should find…

Find…

_Find…_

She had to find a place, and… and try not to pass out even though she really, _really_ felt like she was about to do that.

_Findfindfindfind…_

“Shut. Up! Please!”

The men were too close. She was too tired and too sick for this.

So fuck it.

Just. Go.

_RunrunrunRun_

She ran.

* * *

Galo tried not to tap his foot too much when Lio excused himself to go do detective stuff the balcony. Galo positioned himself so that he was leaning against a wall – which was mostly just window, so could it really be called a wall? – and looking as nonchalant – which in Galo-speak meant an exaggeratedly laid-back lean that made some people take pictures as they walked by – as he could while still seeing Lio and being ready in case he needed backup. He still wasn’t sure what to make of Alixia. She was walking around like she owned any place she went to, but she also talked to all the Burnish like some sort of mom. Galo wasn’t very confident in his ability to read people’s true intentions, not after the person he had thought was a hero had turned out to be a genocidal maniac. He supposed he should just watch and wait, and try not to be too on edge.

But he _was_ on edge. Lio hadn’t been doing so good all evening. He obviously had a headache, which sucked. And when the evening progressed, it seemed that some of the other Burnish guests were having similar problems too. Was it a coincidence? Or was it some kind of secret plot? Galo didn’t know. He was in secret agent -mode, so anything could be a conspiracy. Right? Was there an issue with the food? Or was there something else? Well, whatever it was, Galo was ready for anything!

Something exploded in the distance, and Lucia immediately informed Galo that it was an apartment fire. Then Alixia and Lio rushed inside. Alixia hurried to the stage, and to her credit she managed to stay incredibly composed when she said:

“I’m sorry, everyone, but it seems that my apartment is on fire. I need to leave immediately. You may stay if you wish, though. The staff will take care of you. I thank you all for your donations and for the lovely evening.”

People started to mumble amongst themselves in disappointment and worry, but Alixia didn’t stay to listen to it. She walked through the main doors and slammed them shut behind her.

“Wow,” Galo said, “That’s… a thing.”

 _“Galo?”_ Lucia’s voice said in his earpiece, _“Aina and I are heading to the fire scene, since we’re already this close. But there’s a hotspot moving fast from the apartment. It could be the source of the fire, and possibly a Burnish! Can you take care of that?”_

“Hell, yeah!” Galo proclaimed over the din of worried people, “Lio! Come on! We’ve got work!”

He turned to look, and realised that Lio was already running towards the doors.

“Hey! Wait up!”

They took the elevator down, and Lio nearly smashed the control panel in frustration.

“This _really_ wasn’t how this was supposed to go!” he hissed through gritted teeth, “Meis tried to call me. He and Gueira were going to break into Alixia’s home to look for possible evidence, but some other guys beat them to it! And _then_ someone escaped the house after it went up in flames. Do you realise what this means?”

“It means there’s a big fire and someone could be running through the city… also on fire?” Galo suggested.

“Well, obviously, but also that Alixia had a Burnish in her home. A Burnish with flames,” Lio looked up at Galo very seriously, “Well, at least now we _know_ she’s involved in this.”

“Yeah.”

“Do we have a vehicle and do you know where we need to go?”

“Lucia left our bikes and my Matoi outside. And she just sent me the real-time location on the drone she set to follow the maybe-Burnish.”

He tapped on the “navigate” -text on his phone, and an automated Lucia-voice said:

_“lucia drone #13 moving fast to northeast hurry up if you want to catch it idiot”_

“She made her own programme for this!” Galo said, “Isn’t that cool!”

“Awesome,” Lio said in a deadpan tone, “We need to go fast. I’ll drive, you navigate.”

Galo hadn’t had many expectations about this night. He had hoped for something – _anything_ – that would break the boredom and the stares, and this was way better than just anything. This was an actual sudden high-speed chase, possibly ending in a firefight. _So_ worth the nearly two hours of standing around in the middle of a bunch of unnervingly interested people.

As soon as they got outside, he grabbed his Matoi gear, which was a mech suit that was currently in its portable form in the shape of a high tech version of an old Matoi flag. It was his pride and joy, and his one true weapon against all kinds of fire. With it, he’d fought so many flames and come out on top! It was gonna make even this evening even better-

“Galo!” Lio shouted from where he was already straddling his motorcycle, “Are you rambling on about your Matoi in your mind again?”

“Hell yeah I am!” Galo shouted back.

“Well, stop it and hop on! We’re in a hurry!”

Despite wanting to set an example as a (mostly) law-abiding Burnish, Lio seemed to have the idea that as long as nobody was hurt, traffic laws were just loose guidelines. Now, in an actual chase, he rode like he had a death wish, or like he could still regenerate from any injury with the power of alien fire. Galo squeezed his arms around Lio’s waist as tightly as he dared and yelled directions as soon as the navigator in his phone droned them into his earpiece. It was awesome in all meanings of the word. When Galo had mused that a detective case might end to a chase scene, he hadn’t imagined that it would happen in three piece suits, but didn’t that just give them even more cool points? Though Galo preferred a mech suit to a formal one, this was pretty great too. And he did have his Matoi strapped to his back anyway. Sometimes life was good.

Except right now it was pretty bad too because of… everything.

“Take the next right!” he bellowed when Lio squeezed the bike between two cars so close that everyone’s paint jobs were almost endangered, “We’re gaining on the thing!”

There was no fire so far, aside from the one Burning Rescue was taking care of somewhere far behind them. That was promising, at least. Collateral damage was the not fun part of Galo’s work.

Lio cut through an empty sidewalk and nearly scraped the wall of the building when he turned right. They were heading away from the centre, towards the smaller residential areas and shadier side streets.

“We’re almost there! I think they’re slowing down! Take a left!”

They turned. There was a car that had squished itself into a far too narrow alleyway in their way.

“SHIT! BRAKE! GO RIGHT!”

Lio didn’t miss a beat. Tyres screeched, and the bike was sent into a drift, coming sideways to a stop, lightly bumping against the car’s back bumper before Lio sped to the right to an even tinier alley.

“Damn!” Lio hissed, “What’s their deal, parking in there?! Galo, is this the fastest route?”

“Uh… I think so! They’re still moving, and… oh, they stopped? They kinda looped back, but now they’re in one place… I think it’s a building or something.”

“Okay. Get ready to run, we’re almost there.”

He suddenly hit the brakes and barely took the time to set the kickstand. They had ended up in front of a small garage.

“Wait… I know this place,” Lio said, “There’s a pretty accessible maintenance tunnel entrance inside. We’ve used this a lot if we need to get under the city.”

“Back when you were still burning stuff?”

“Well, yes, but later too. Sometimes it’s safer to stay below ground.”

Lio went to a small side door and pulled it. It opened reluctantly, creaking. In the darkness behind, someone stopped trying to pull something heavy open and started holding their breath.

“Hey,” Lio said, “I’m not going to hurt you.“

“B…boss?” came a response from a corner. A light suddenly sparked to life. It was cradled in a hand that was covered in cracked Burnish armour. A woman’s face stared with large, scared, reddish brown eyes.

“Please…” her voice sounded like it was wired too tight, nearly snapping, “ _Help me._ ”

There was a moment when time seemed to stop. And then Lio said a very quiet, strangled:

“Phedra?”

Phedra Deo let out a relieved sigh. She stood, and pieces of armour crumbled from her body, turning into ash the moment they hit the floor. She stumbled and ended up back on her knees almost right away, but she was smiling.

“Boss!” Phedra said again, “Shit! I’m so… I’m so happy to see you!”

“What happened to you?” Lio asked and knelt next to her, “How did you-?”

“We probably don’t have much time for explanations,” Phedra said, “But I’ll try. I… wait, no-“

Her hands sparked.

“I… I need to find Terri… she and I escaped, and I… Oh, shit! Not now! I… I can’t always control it yet! The flames… they… GET BACK!”

Galo managed to grab Lio by the shoulders and pull him back when Phedra burst into flames. The fire morphed into vague tendrils and stabbed into the ceiling and through the windows, hammering against the steel doors and cracking the floor.

“STAY BACK!” Phedra yelled, “I’ll try to… I…”

More flames roared to life. Galo pressed both himself and Lio to the floor. Lio had put his hands over his ears, his face scrunched up in pain. Galo pulled his Matoi gear from his back and fiddled with its settings until he could aim a spray of icy mist at the flames. It was gentler than physical ice shot straight at the person, but still effective. Phedra disappeared into the mist, and so did the whole room. Frost crept over Galo’s jacket, and he could feel Lio shivering next to him. The roar of the flames died down, and for a moment, the eerie silence was back. When the mist settled, it was dark until Galo flicked on a flashlight that fell on Phedra’s limp form in the middle of a frosted-over burn mark on the floor.

“Whoa,” Galo said, “That was real Promare-stuff all right.”

He got up and walked over to Phedra to check that she was still breathing. She was, but she barely responded to stimuli (read: Galo yelling at her).

“She’s nearly unconscious, but alive,” Galo said, “Stay back. We don’t know if it’s safe here yet.”

“Yes, we do!” Lio said and knelt down next to Galo, “The Promare are quiet for now. Even if she’s about to combust again, we’ve got time before that happens.”

“Wait… you can hear them?”

“Yes,” Lio said, “Sometimes. We may not be synced to them anymore, but what made us resonate with them didn't go anywhere. It’s… their call is not clear like it was when I had the Promare, but it’s there.”

He frowned.

“But this isn’t… it doesn’t feel like it used to. I think what Phedra has really _is_ the Promare, but they’re… it’s like they’re in pieces, if that makes any sense when we’re talking about fire. I think they’re afraid. And confused. Or then Phedra was, and the flames reacted.”

Phedra groaned and blinked. She tried to get up, but her arms immediately failed her. Galo put a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, easy,” he said, “You’re safe. And you’re… probably okay too.”

“I… am?” Phedra asked in a hoarse, quiet voice, “Holy shit, did I just crash through a window?”

“Uh… maybe a while ago?”

“Wait, yes. I totally did that. And I almost burned you…” Phedra pressed a trembling hand over her eyes, “I’m so sorry! I was… it’s all kind of a blur. The fire is… not okay. _I’m_ not okay.”

“We’ll help you,” Lio said, “But we need to know what happened so we know _how_ to help.”

Phedra nodded, and with Lio and Galo’s help she managed to sit while leaning heavily against a wall. She produced a small flame that flickered over her palm, and Galo would have protested if Phedra hadn’t looked like the flame calmed her down. Lio was staring quietly at the fire as well, almost mesmerised by the pink and cyan light. That was… a bit unnerving, but Galo didn’t have time to worry about that either (yet), because Phedra started to talk in a wavering voice:

“We need to find Terri. We escaped together, and… we stole a… thing. She had it, but I didn’t find her until I started feeling too bad to keep going.”

“Phedra,” Lio said in a very fragile voice, “We… found Terri. She was dead.”

“What?” Phedra gasped, “How?”

“We think she burned out.”

“Oh…” Phedra lowered her head, “I… we knew it was coming, but I’d hoped… _shit_! I’m so sorry, Terri.”

“She was sorry too,” Lio said, “She left you a message.”

“Damn idiot…” Phedra sniffed, “We were supposed to meet. We split up as a diversion because people were after us. That was probably stupid. I think it took her longer to get here. I waited for her, and she wasn’t coming. And then the soldiers found me and I ran.”

“Who?”

“People from the facility,” Phedra laughed bitterly, “And we thought those days were over. We thought… this one was different.”

“What do you mean?”

“The missing Burnish… I know what happened to them,” Phedra said. She was speaking slower, like words were getting difficult for her, “I… was one of them. We were all summoned. Well, okay, it wasn’t that… epic. I met a guy. Eon Morado. He chatted me up, and when I was feeling sad, he told me that… that they’d found our flames again. That it was a secret, and that I should come with him so he could show me. Honestly, I thought it was a weird pickup line and thought why not? But it wasn’t. I followed, and the next thing I knew we were driving to the desert.”

She laughed again and still didn’t sound happy.

“There’s a facility. An old one somewhere under the desert. Some of Bastard Foresight’s secret little projects. It’s been taken over by Burnish from some old safehouse. And there’s a guy… a scientist. And there’s… flames.”

“You mean there’s actual Promare in there?” Lio asked, “How is that possible?”

“We all asked that question once,” Phedra said, “But not enough after we synced with them again. It was… well, it hurts right now, but it’s still like I’m me again. I knew it was stupid, but I… I wanted them back.”

She smiled softly at the flame on her palm. Then she sighed.

“But then… Alec died.”

Lio put his head in his hands and held his breath for a long, silent moment before he managed a quiet:

“What happened?”

“The Promare we were bonded with are not alright,” Phedra said. She frowned deeply and her hands sparked again. Galo prepared himself, but after a moment Phedra relaxed, and there was no fire aside from her tiny flame, “Somehow, they managed to put them in tanks. Or well, fusion generator-things. They’re unstable because of that. We don’t know what’s wrong with them. When we’re first bonded, the first few days are hell. Sure, it wasn’t easy to control them the first time either, but at least it didn’t _hurt_ like this. After that, it should be great. Like… normal. At least back there, where they had some tech and stuff to fight the worst of it.”

Phedra chewed on her lower lip. Her eyes closed, but Lio managed to shake her awake by the shoulder.

“Sorry…” she slurred, “I’m… the flames are really loud. I didn’t have time to get past the bad phase until I ran. Listen, no matter how great they will feel after this, they’re still… they’re killing us. Fast.”

“What?” Lio breathed.

“There were some people who had been fine for nearly a year. But with Alec, it only took a few months. They… told us that they were working on making it better, but it was slow because they needed to stay hidden and couldn’t ask for outside help. That’s when Terri and I ran. And stole one of the Promare tanks.”

“You did _what_?!”

“You heard me,” Phedra said and looked almost smug for a second, “We Prometheus’d that place. And if Terri is… gone… and you didn’t find the Promare with her, then that means there’s a freakin’ mangled fire alien somewhere in this city. And if that generator breaks, things will get bad, fast. They’re wild when they’re not bound to anyone in that state.”

Lio hastily dug out his phone and scrolled until he had a picture on the screen.

“I think Terri hid it. This is the message she wanted to send you. She probably hoped that you’d see it and find the Promare.”

“Oh, Terri…” Phedra whispered, “And I didn’t even find _this_ …”

“You found it now,” Galo said.

Phedra smiled weakly. Then she squinted at the picture.

“Yeah. That makes sense. It’s… hold on… it’s in the tunnels, not far from our meeting spot. Shit… I hid in those tunnels for days until someone came looking. At one point I wasn’t even that far away from this spot. But it’s been so hard to focus. Mostly I’ve just been out cold somewhere.”

“Why were you in Alixia Karis’s home?” Lio asked.

“That’s who she is?” Phedra said, “Like I said, I’ve been really out of it in the last… days, I guess. I think she found me and… She told me I needed to hide, but I didn’t… I wanted to leave, but I couldn’t find the strength. Not until those guys broke in. I think the adrenaline kicked in at that point, but I… I…”

She gasped when the door was banged open. Lio was immediately up on his feet and had a knife in his hand, and Galo aimed his Matoi at…

Alixia Karis, who looked worse for the wear and out of breath, but also very determined.

“Oh, there you are!” she breathed, “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“Alixia?” Phedra said, “That’s your… name right? I’m so sorry about your home. I think I panicked and it kind of burned.”

Lio stepped between Phedra and Alixia. His glare looked downright poisonous.

“What are you doing here, and why have you been hiding a missing person in your home?”

Alixia sighed.

“Lio, this is not the time for-”

“This is the perfect time for you to explain yourself!” Lio snapped, “What _are_ you up to?!”

“I’m not _up_ to anything!” Alixia said, “I found her and I wanted to help her, that’s _it_!”

“So you helped Phedra by locking her up and not telling me or even her family where she was?”

“Don’t accuse me of going behind anyone’s back when it was probably your people who broke into my home, scared her out of hiding, and made her run right into a public space!”

“My people didn’t do that! Someone else was in there and beat my guys to it!”

“So you confess that you really had people trying to break into my home?”

“I wouldn’t have needed to if you had just told me the truth! And I’m pretty sure kidnapping is _a bit_ more serious than breaking and entering.”

“I didn’t kidnap anyone!” Alixia shouted, “I was trying to help her recover! And _then_ I was going to save the rest of the missing too!”

Wait. _What?_

“What?” Galo said out loud, “You mean…?”

“Yes!” Alixia said, “The main reason I came to this city was that I heard your people were going missing!”

“I don’t believe you,” Lio said at once.

“Well, that’s your loss, then,” Alixia huffed, “But it’s true.”

“If you were trying to find them, then why wouldn’t you cooperate with me or the police? I specifically _asked_ you to help, and all you’ve done is lie and withhold information!”

“Because, like I told you,” Alixia said very slowly, as if speaking to a three-year-old without really knowing how to speak to three-year-olds, “It wasn’t. Your. Responsibility. It was mine.”

“Because of safehouse fourteen?” Lio said, “The one where everyone went missing.”

“Oh, you figured that out?” Alixia smiled, “Nicely done. Very impressive. Yes. People went missing on my watch, and I never found out what happened to them. Until now… when another missing Burnish case popped up. As did a person I’d thought missing.”

“Eon.”

“Yes. My, you _are_ clever,” Alixia said, “Maybe your games weren’t useless after all. But this is serious. I heard you were talking about a missing flame. That sounds like something that should be taken care of right away.”

“You were listening in?” Galo asked, “That’s not very cool.”

Alixia pointedly ignored him.

“Phedra, that was your name, right?” she said, “You know where the flame is, don’t you?”

“Yeah… I do,” Phedra said dazedly. Whatever had been keeping her as alert as she had been seemed to be finally fading away, “It can’t be left there…”

“No, it can’t,” Alixia said, and then turned to Lio, “I’m sorry about how I acted at the dinner. I was shaken because of the break-in, but it was still wrong of me to say such nasty things to you. I didn’t mean any of it. Well, most of it.”

She smiled.

“I do believe that you are growing up to be a wonderful young man. You’ve helped so many already, and I know you will help even more. But this one is my job.”

“Like hell it is!” Lio hissed.

“Please, don’t start acting up now,” Alixia said, “I’ll take care of Phedra and this flame she was talking about.”

“Not alone you won’t,” Lio took a step forward, eyes blazing with barely contained anger.

“Yes, I will. Go home, both of you.”

“Why should I?” Lio said, “People need help here!”

Alixia took a deep breath.

“Yes,” she said and suddenly sounded very tired, “They do.”

Before Galo could properly register what was happening, Alixia pulled a small gun out of her purse and shot Galo in the chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... how's that? Should I prepare to dodge tomatoes or something? Bear in mind that it's EXTREMELY unlikely of me to actually kill off any canon characters in any of my fics. But I can and will make their lives difficult.
> 
> I had to do like five rewrites of this, but most of it felt pretty good even at the last editing phase, but now my insecurities are coming back again. I'll try to keep them at least constructive, I guess. Somehow.
> 
> Oof, this fic is turning into a monster of words. Did I say I'll try to keep this kinda concise? I may have forgotten that I can't do concise when I said that. And I'm pretty sure I'm only halfway through the story at this point. Yikes.
> 
> Thank you all who have read, kudos'd, and/or commented. It makes me very happy to have any kind of feedback! I hope you all stay safe!


	7. Inferno

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Burn brighter.
> 
> Find...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content Warning: This chapter contains more guns. Also bad gun safety.
> 
> Updates might slow down a bit after this one. See after chapter if you're interested why.

_It wasn’t the presence of the flames alone that awakened the Burnish. The channel was always there, always somewhat open, but it needed a kick to really get the Burnish to synchronise with alien fire. Usually it had been some kind of emotional turmoil or a stressful situation. Anger had been the easiest, and the Burnish had fairly quickly realised that rage could fuel the flames even after awakening._

_When Felix brought containers of flames in to safehouse 14, some had awakened simply by being presented with the Promare. The shock of seeing a part of oneself that had been thought lost was quite stressful, it turned out._

_They danced with real flames that night. It was like coming home, like being themselves again. Eon watched them from the sidelines, happy and warm despite not reawakening himself. Next to him, Felix smiled like he had done something right._

_“I don’t know how you did it,” Eon said, “But thank you, Felix.”_

_“Fenn,” Felix said, “My name is Fenn Meers. I was a… I worked on this project. Worked for… you know, that monster. That’s how I knew.”_

_He nodded towards the dancing flames._

_“This… I like to think this was my atonement.”_

_“Oh,” Eon said._

_“It’s okay if you’re angry,” Felix – no, Fenn – said, “I understand.”_

_Eon looked at the people. They were so much more alive, happy even as some of them complained about headaches and a burning that was different than before._

_“I don’t think I can be,” he said, “Not right now, at least.”_

* * *

There were many things Lio wouldn’t ever want to see, but still kept seeing because humans were idiots. People being oppressed or deliberately hurt was at the top of that list. The world being destroyed – be it slowly or fast – was another. And something bad happening to Galo Thymos apparently made it on that list now too.

It had happened so fast. One moment Alixia was just being stubbornly unhelpful, and the next she was aiming a gun and pulling the trigger. Lio’s heart stopped, and he glanced back just enough to see that Galo _wasn’t_ bleeding horribly on the floor. Instead, whatever Alixia had shot at him detonated with what looked like electricity and sent him to the floor, stunned and twitching in pain but still very much alive and probably okay.

Two trains of thought hit Lio at the same time. The first was:

_Not a bullet. No blood. Not dying… Holy shit…!_

And the second:

_THAT **BITCH**!_

He was running. Not towards Galo, but to disarm Alixia. Always get rid of the immediate threat first; it would help no one if he got shot as well. It was a good plan, and he executed it fast with years of experience. Too bad his split-second of heart-stopping terror was still enough for Alixia to turn the gun on him, and he felt a sting somewhere in his stomach, then pain that made his muscles lock up. He crashed into Alixia, but the disarming move he’d been going for was considerably harder to do when his arms didn’t work.

His legs gave out, but he didn’t fall. Instead, he felt arms around him, careful not to touch where they might be second-hand shocked by the electrical current, lowering him to the floor. It was gentle and motherly and made his skin crawl.

“I’m so sorry,” Alixia whispered, soft, soothing. Lio could barely make it out, “It’s okay… It’s not dangerous, just a little shock. You’ll be able to move again before you know it.”

Lio’s heartrate was uncomfortably up, but he wasn’t sure if it was because of the shock or because of that one horrible split-second when he had thought it had been a lethal shot. When he had thought that Galo was…

The pain was gone, but he was left winded, lying on the floor without really knowing which way he was supposed to start moving. He _hated_ being stunned. It hadn’t happened often, because all kinds of weapons that required something metal touching the skin had usually just melted before they could get to the Burnish when they’d still had their fire. But there had been some bastards in uniforms who had thought it was _hilarious_ to restrain Burnish with their ice tech, put them into a cold room and start shocking…

“I’ll take care of everything, Lio,” Alixia whispered, and Lio was only vaguely aware of what she was talking about, “Don’t you worry.”

She stood, disappeared from Lio’s field of vision. He could hear her voice getting stern again. She was speaking to Phedra.

“I’m sorry about this, but you know we can’t endanger any more people. Let’s go find that Promare before anyone gets hurt.”

Then they were gone, and after Alixia had shut the door behind her, there was only darkness. And dwindling fire that tried to call out.

* * *

Despite not always employing the most legal of methods, Alixia Karis had always had good intentions. While there is a saying about good intentions and paving roads to a very specific place, Alixia hadn’t truly had to think about that too seriously before. Yes, she probably hadn’t always made the best of decisions, and she could recognise that. But the problem was that she usually only recognised it when the deed had already been done and it was far too late. It was perhaps a side effect of growing up in an environment that had been quite good at teaching her that she could have anything she wanted, and whatever consequences her youthful stupidity had ever had, her parents had usually sorted out with money and connections. And while she knew about this privilege, she didn’t really always realise just _how_ much it had affected her.

Now, when she had resorted to attacking two perfectly well-intentioned young men, she reasoned that it had been either pre-emptive self-defence or just protecting Lio Fotia and Galo Thymos from getting into worse trouble. She wasn’t a bad person. She didn’t even use an actual gun, but rather the gentlest taser on the market! And she had even asked her people to bar the door to that garage so that nobody attacked those two boys while they were recovering. And so that they wouldn’t try to pursue her, but _mostly_ to protect them.

If Alixia had been more honest with herself at that moment, she would have realised that maybe her fear of someone finding out about her part in this whole mess was a bigger motivator behind her more hasty decisions than she liked to admit. But she _was_ still legitimately worried about what might happen if someone handled that stolen Promare carelessly. And what about the men who were apparently after Phedra Deo? They sounded dangerous, so she definitely didn’t want anyone too close to them. Those were the things she focused on now as he drove through narrow streets, all so she didn’t have to think about her flaws as a person. She looked at her rearview mirror to see Phedra, who now sat barely awake at the back of Alixia’s car, squished between two of her security guards.

“Why’d you… shoot them?” Phedra asked.

“They’ll be fine,” Alixia said, “I’m trying to protect everyone here. Where to?”

Phedra sighed.

“To the left. We’ll have to walk soon. And get under the streets.”

“Oh? Ah, yes, I remember. You mentioned the tunnels.”

“It’s… not far anymore.”

“Good. And do tell me if you need to burn again. I’d like this car to stay intact.”

Phedra didn’t reply. She looked lost to the word. Alixia hoped she wouldn’t pass out. They had already wasted so many minutes trying to manoeuvre these stupid side streets. Just how far away could it be?

She was so focused on driving that she didn’t notice the big off-road vehicle – now with a small dent at the front – that had started following them after squeezing out of an alley it had been parked in.

* * *

In the now pitch black garage, Galo Thymos yanked a pair of metal barbs from his chest and started to get up with shaky limbs. This had been a new kind of pain and a new kind of state for his body to be in. It hadn’t been very fun. At least it was gone quickly, but so were Alixia and Phedra. Galo’s head hurt, but that was mostly from hitting it against the concrete floor when he’d fallen. It was annoying, but he could work with it.

He got to his knees, quickly grabbed his Matoi and jumped to his feet. He fumbled for his flashlight in the dark for a few moments before he found it and could cast a beam of light right on…

“Lio!” he shouted and ran to Lio’s side. He’d apparently been hit too after Galo had started losing motor functions and things had started hurting a bit too much for Galo to register a whole lot, “Hey! You hear me?”

He shook Lio’s shoulder, and Lio cringed, rolling away and lurching to his knees.

“Get off-! Wait… Galo?” he said, his voice sounding scratched up and paper-thin, “Are you hurt?”

“Nope,” Galo said, “I’m one hundred percent and ready to catch her!”

Lio let out a deep breath, ripped the barbs in his stomach loose, and then tried to stand. He made it about halfway until he fell again.

“Shit!” he coughed out, “I _really_ don’t like being stunned.”

He tried again and this time managed to get all the way up to his feet with a bit of help from Galo. Lio stumbled and clutched at Galo’s jacket, briefly pressing his forehead to Galo’s chest.

“I… I thought…” he said in a very quiet voice, but then he shook his head, “Never mind. Later.”

He tried the door, but it didn’t budge. The bigger door meant for cars had melted shut long ago in some fire or other.

“Damn it,” Lio said, “Well, we can always use the tunnels from here, as long as we know where to go.”

“Don’t worry about that!” Galo said cheerfully, “I’ve got it all covered! Lucia?”

_“Oh! Good! You’re still in one piece.”_

“You heard everything?”

_“Nope. Kinda had to switch off when the fire got bad. But I figured something was wrong when I got an alert for overload. You’re lucky my stuff is super insulated and overload-proofed, or your brain would have probably melted right out of your ears.”_

“Really?”

_“Eehh… I don’t know, but it sounds rad. Anyway, we’re almost done here, and Ignis is gonna send people your way! You guys okay?”_

“We’re fine,” Galo said, “Hey, you still got the drone locked onto Phedra?”

_“That who our target was?”_

“Yeah! We’ve almost figured this all out!”

_“Good to know. Yeah, it’s locked on.”_

“Good. Give us directions! Alixia attacked us and took Phedra, and now they’re trying to find a Promare-tank that’s hidden under the city.”

_“Waiiiiit, wait! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON THERE? And how? And why? And when?!”_

“Lucia! The drone?”

_“The drone’s moving! Just switch navigation back on, dumbass!”_

Galo did just that and then grinned encouragingly at Lio, who was looking at him with a mix of impatience and something he couldn’t identify. It made his usually icy exterior crack a little at the edges. Maybe it was something he’d want to talk about once it was over. Maybe once they were watching real stars at the desert.

But that would come later. First, they’d have to finish this rescue.

* * *

Phedra hated everything about this situation, but she also knew that she had very little choice but to go with it. Alixia was currently her best bet of getting the Promare out safely. They were running out of time, and she was too exhausted to keep fleeing, let alone fight the people who were after her. But on the other hand, Alixia had just attacked her boss. Well, former boss, but Lio was still Boss even though they weren’t officially a gang anymore. Turning into a fire dragon to avenge his people and then saving the world with a giant robot-thing was one way to gain people’s eternal respect. So yes, attacking Lio was unacceptable and made Phedra all kinds of suspicious of Alixia. What was her deal? Was she really just obsessed with being the one to solve this mess, or was there something else?

And if there was, what could Phedra currently do about it?

Phedra, Alixia, and Alixia’s guards descended into the narrow tunnels underneath the city and walked the short remaining distance to the spot Terri’s message led to. Phedra realised immediately what Terri had been thinking. In front of them was one of the potholes that had been carved into the ground by a dragon two years ago. Everyone avoided them, because they were dangerous and climbing down wasn’t worth the effort. It was a pretty good hiding place for even a dangerous small thing.

Phedra scanned the area and soon spotted a small blemish in the otherwise smooth walls of the pit in front of them. It was a small crack that could have been made with solidified fire. In it, she could hear the flames murmuring, crying out for their lost home. Or maybe it was just her imagination. She glanced at Alixia. She probably heard the voices too.

“I think it’s there,” she said, “Pretty hard to reach, but… well, that’s probably the point.”

“Yes,” Alixia said, “I hear them. Can you reach it?”

“I… I can try,” Phedra said. Maybe… maybe she could still work with this. Maybe she and Alixia could get the thing out, Phedra could insist on carrying it for safety reasons, and then find the perfect time to run again. Well, when her legs would work properly and she'd be _able_ to run again, that is. She focused on her flames, strained not to make them flare up as wildly as they wanted, and raised her hand. Fire leaped to the edge of the hole in the ground and solidified into a small platform next to where the Promare was located. She didn’t dare put it _too_ close. She could feel the flames reaching out, trying to get to their brethren. She could hear them scream in her ears, and it took all her remaining willpower not to just pass out and let the flames do whatever they wanted.

“Nicely done,” Alixia said, “Go on.”

Phedra trudged to the edge and hopped onto the platform. She reached out into the small hole in the wall and recalled all the stories where something horrible happened to hands that blindly reached into things. But all she felt was the smooth, incredibly heated surface of a cube. And fire that desperately tried to get through it.

She pulled the container out. It was white and featureless, like an extra-large children’s building block. A toy that could possibly level buildings. She scoffed at the thought. Toys. That was what the Burnish and the Promare had been to Bastard Foresight. Good thing that monster was locked up now – though prison was better than he deserved.

Phedra felt faint, so she stepped back to solid ground before she fell. She let the platform melt back into flames and called them back to her hand. They didn’t need to be told twice. They wanted to curl around the cube under her arm, but Phedra forced them to sink back into her body. It was much more difficult than it should have been. She took a deep breath and tried to pretend that her vision wasn’t wavering. Alixia was smiling at her.

“Thank you so much for your help,” she said.

“No,” said a voice behind them, “Thank _you_.”

They turned, but not fast enough to stop four men from swarming Alixia’s bodyguards and bring them to the ground. One of the men straightened. He was wearing a beanie and a very self-important grin.

“I’ve always wanted to do this!” he said and spread his arms, “You know, this thing when you wait for someone to find what you’re looking for and then swoop in? It’s a classic!”

The other men mumbled amongst themselves with what sounded like annoyance.

“Oh, come on!” the first man said, “You agreed to this! And it worked! So shut up!”

He turned back to Alixia and Phedra, took out two guns and, as what was practically an afterthought, aimed at Phedra. He shot three times. Ice snapped around Phedra’s wrists and ankles, as well as the cube, which fell to the ground when Phedra couldn’t hold onto it anymore. While sudden ice wasn’t an unfamiliar pain, it was something Phedra had thought she was already _done_ with in her life. Maybe it was the fact that she was feeling really woozy and confused about everything, but for some reason annoyance managed to wrestle on top of all the other emotions even as the man aimed his second gun – this one with actual bullets – at her and Alixia, who had picked up the cube and refused to drop it.

“You know,” the man said, “We were specifically told not to kill anyone here, and yeah, that’s noble and all that shit. But we’re not getting paid by the hour for this, so your escape and this whole damn city has already been way more trouble than it’s worth. So we might at this point be impatient enough to not care about collateral damage.”

Alixia stepped between the gun and Phedra, perhaps proving something or not realising just how serious the situation was.

“Are you from the facility where the missing Burnish are?” she asked.

The man shrugged.

“Maybe. Well, yes, but we’re just goons. Professional goons.”

“Private contractors specialised in retrieval, guarding, and discreet violence,” one of the men holding Alixia’s people said gruffly, “Have some pride for your job, Kev.”

“And _you_ should remember we’re here _anonymously_ , _Mark!_ ” snapped the man named Kev, “What next? You gonna tell them my social security number too?”

“Let’s just get the fire thing and the woman and be done with this.”

“I’m getting to that!” Kev yelled and then turned to smile at Alixia again, “So, lady, step aside and give us the woman and the fire and we’ll let you go.”

“Really?” Alixia scoffed, “Because it sounds to me like I already know too much, and you’re going to shoot me anyway. Also no, there’s no way I’m handing anyone over to you.”

“We’re not unreasonable!” Kev said, “Cooperation is cooperation, and we can respect that. And it’s not _our_ problem if this whole project collapses in on its own stupidity. I mean, handing out fire powers to already traumatised people? What _could_ go wrong?”

“Actually, it _is_ our problem,” another of the men pointed out, “We won’t get paid if this goes down.”

“Oh yeah. Okay, what if we just take all of these with us? Then the facility people can decide what to do with them.”

“Ehh, sounds good to me.”

“No. We were told not to get anyone involved,” said the third man.

“They’re already involved!”

“At least take the Burnish woman to the car already,” suggested Mark, “So that nothing else goes wrong.”

“Good idea,” said Kev, “Jason, you do it. And you guys, knock the security people out or something! You don’t have to keep sitting on them!”

It was at this point when Phedra was too tired to focus on anything, and she could only hope that they would somehow make it out. She was frozen, and the flames were screaming but ineffectual, and she had managed to screw up Terri’s last request so completely that she almost deserved to be taken back to that damn facility by these apparently efficient idiots. These thoughts and the flames consumed her so completely that she barely heard when Alixia was rather violently yanked to the side despite her protests, and barely felt when the man named Jason dragged her away from Alixia, to the maintenance hatch, and then to a car. From up there, there was no way for her to see how Kev and the others continued arguing until they were distracted by a sound coming from one of the tunnels.

* * *

When Kev and his colleagues had been dispatched to find two runaway Burnish and – as they referred to it – the fire thing that had been stolen, they had decided that four people were enough. Well, eight. One group to wait near the outskirts of the city just in case, and the other to go in to do the actual work. More would attract too much attention, and they had more than enough gear against both normal humans and Burnish to get two malfunctioning fire ladies under control without too many men. They had assumed that it would be a fairly quick gig, but it had turned out that the malfunctioning fire ladies were much craftier, or then much luckier, than they had anticipated.

And now it also turned out that the city had a much bigger population of difficult people than they had realised.

Kev had already started to suspect something like this when they had heard that one of the fire ladies was dead and the case was now being investigated by the police. He had especially started to feel like this job was going to suck when some rich lady had snatched the other Burnish they were hunting right from under their noses and hidden her, and they'd had to figure out where she lived to get anywhere with this. And _now_ the rich lady was being stubborn and unafraid of guns and holding onto the fire thing with a very impressive death-grip even as Kev tried to ask nicely for her to part with it. She even had the guts to try to _negotiate, s_ aying she’d let the cube go if they set the fire lady free. So annoying.

But even as Kev reminded himself that he had been prepared for a sucky job, he realised that he _hadn’t_ been prepared for two people in suits to round the corner at this very moment, and immediately attack them.

The tall one with a ridiculously spiky blue hairdo swung something that looked like a mop of the future, and Kev and his colleagues found their guns frozen. Then the tiny one was on Mark like a very angry cat, if cats had what appeared to be years of martial arts training.

Kev decided that he’d _definitely_ ask for hazard pay when they got back.

* * *

As anyone with basic knowledge of self-defence knows, there is a very simple survival tip for engaging an armed opponent: _don’t_. It didn’t matter if it was a sharp object or a gun, nor that the gun was temporarily disabled. Just stay away if you can. But right now, there wasn’t much of a choice for Lio or Galo. They were trying to save other people’s lives, not just their own. Besides, Lio was angry. It was a very normal state for him, because he often had reasons to be angry and not enough ways to fix them. Because oftentimes they just plain _couldn’t_ be fixed right away and had already had time to fester and spread through the entire world.

Alixia had got at least one thing right in her little speech on the balcony: they were in a world where most problems couldn’t just be punched anymore.

But _this_ at least was a problem that could be punched, which meant that Lio felt even a bit excited about the prospect. Not necessarily about hitting people, because violence itself wasn’t cool, but because at least there was a chance to set something right.

He dodged one man’s attempt to grab him, weaved under a frozen gun barrel that swung at him, punched a solar plexus and twisted the gun right out of the now wheezing man’s hands. He would have very much liked to remove the magazine or some other vital part, but there was no time. He settled for throwing the whole thing into the large hole in the ground. If it went off there, it would only hit walls.

He backed up after that when the man came after him. He spotted Galo, who had disarmed another man with a whack of his Matoi, and then taken the man’s legs from under him with a sweep. Another punch missed Lio, and Lio aimed a kick at the man’s knee. The man went down, and Lio made sure he stayed down by knocking him out with carefully aimed strikes to the neck. Behind him, Galo had pressed a knee on his opponent’s back, unravelled his bowtie and used it to tie the man’s hands.

Two down. One to go.

“Hey!” said the One Who Still Had to Go, “Stop! Stop moving or I’ll shoot the lady!”

Lio looked up. The remaining man apparently had another gun, and he was pointing it at Alixia. He was smirking at Galo and Lio in a very annoying way. Alixia was looking stoically at the gun and holding a frozen cube that was practically squirming with muted screams of the Promare. Not second-hand screams from another Burnish, but the unfiltered calls straight out of the fire.

Lio would be lying if he said the whispers weren’t having an effect on him. That there wasn’t an empty space somewhere within that wanted to feel the flames again. Two years was _not_ enough time to come to terms with losing a vital part of his identity.

But he couldn’t focus on that yet. Now there were way more pressing matters to attend to.

“Okay,” the man was saying, “Let’s be polite about this. My name’s Kev. It’s short of Kevin. Who the hell are you guys?”

“We’re Galo Thymos and Lio Fotia!” Galo proclaimed, “We’re here to save the day and extinguish your whole operation!”

“Wait, you’re _those_ guys?” Kev said, “Wow! I never thought I’d get to fight anyone that famous! Still gonna ask for hazard pay, though. This is getting annoying!”

“What are you _doing_ here?” Alixia cut in, glaring at Lio, “You were supposed to stay safe! I was going to take care of this!”

“And how is that working out for you?” Lio asked, maybe more sharply than he had meant to. But Alixia had just hurt Galo about five minutes ago, and Lio was _not_ going to let that go so easily. And moreover, “Did you _lose_ Phedra at some point?”

“You mean the fire lady?” Kev said, “She’s already in our car. She’s fine, though. No need to get mad.”

Alixia’s glare got even more venomous. The kind of venomous that indicated that she was angry enough to do something reckless.

And she did.

As soon as Kev’s gun wavered even a millimetre, Alixia grabbed Kev’s wrist and tried to wrestle the gun from his hand.

“Now!” Lio shouted, sprinting into the fray now that no one had guns against their heads. Galo followed, but they didn’t have time to reach Kev or Alixia before Kev let out a very annoyed shout and _stumbled_.

There had been moments when it looked like the situation had crossed some sort of event horizon, after which there was no way it could still be salvaged peacefully or without serious consequences. Maybe the event horizon had already been crossed the moment a former Foresight Foundation scientist had made an offer to Alixia Karis. Or perhaps a bit later, after the first death. Or after Phedra and Terri had escaped. Or when Terri had died and her ashes had been found. Or even when Alixia had decided to rather violently decline the help of two capable people.

But if it hadn’t been crossed before, it definitely was when the man named Kev stumbled, which led to Alixia stumbling, and the frozen cube of trapped fire slipping from her hands.

Right into the deep hole in the ground.

Where it fell hard enough for the ice-weakened surface to crack.

For the loop inside to be broken.

For the flames to gain a tiny sliver of freedom.

“Oh, shit,” Lio, Galo, Alixia, and Kev all said almost exactly in unison.

The Promare were creatures of simple, instinctive desires. Normally they only wanted to burn, for that was how they gained life: trough hydrogen atoms fusing together under immense heat. But the flames in the box had been cut off from their brethren, and on top of that they had had to lie in a semi-dormant state for a long time. They had fed their own prison and themselves and longed to feel the connection to the rest of them, and to burn free. So when the cube cracked, their hunger to burn burst forth in an uncontrollable inferno that fried their prison and made its walls break like glass.

Kev immediately started running. As did his still conscious friend whose hands were tied. They scrambled for the way out and climbed through. It was actually impressive how the other one could tear his hands free in order to climb with the power of sheer panic.

Lio felt the Promare breaking out as a cacophony of screams and vague wishes that flame-whispered so loudly that they made his head feel like it was splitting open. He vaguely heard Galo yell at everyone to get back, and saw Alixia run past him into the tunnels. Galo aimed his Matoi at the flames that shot upwards from the pit, and ice quickly formed a jagged lid over them.

“Quick!” Galo said and nodded towards the three unconscious people on the ground, “We need to carry them to safety!”

They managed to drag two of them through the nearby hatch and went back for the third one. But the fire wasn’t done yet. The Promare were afraid and lost, and all they knew was that they shouldn’t be there but they still needed to keep burning. They surged into the cracks in the ground, and then looped back upwards.

“Oh, crap!” Galo yelped when the ground underneath their feet started to shake, “Run!”

They ran, but the flames were faster. One moment they were going forward, the next Lio felt as if his feet were on fire, and the ground rose up like a tidal wave under him. He heard Galo cry out, saw Galo’s Matoi fly somewhere past him, and then he was falling and crashing among rubble that hadn’t been there a second ago. Air left his lungs and something struck him in the back painfully enough to probably leave a very impressive bruise, but that was soon all buried under the roar of the pink flames and the heat that was now all around them.

_BurnburnburnBURN_

They had fallen deep below the tunnel, down to a smaller tear in the ground that had probably been left either by nature or then something angrier and more on fire. Galo rolled to a stop next to Lio, and Lio realised that Galo’s jacket was on fire. Galo ripped the jacket off and threw it into the flames that now raged everywhere, and then took out his freezing gun.

“Lio!” he shouted, “You… oh, there you are! You okay?”

“I’m fine,” Lio said, even though he could barely even hear Galo and his back was killing him. Galo hurried to push Lio back against a larger piece of rubble in a spot that wasn’t yet on fire. He positioned himself in front of Lio and shot ice from his gun until it formed a jagged wall in front of them.

“Okay, good news first” Galo shouted, “I think I managed to throw that one guy so he didn’t fall in with us! I _hope_! Bad news, I lost my Matoi, and we’re kinda trapped down here! But it’s going to be okay! I’ll keep the flames at bay! Burning Rescue is already on its way here.”

“You’re going to keep an entire inferno at bay with just your freezing gun?!” Lio yelled back, “Don’t be an idiot! That’s not going to be enough!”

“Well, that’s all we’ve got! Don’t worry! I’m not going to let either of us burn here!”

He turned to the flames.

“You hear that, fire! I may just have a tiny ice gun left, but I’d fight you even with just my bare hands! I’m going to extinguish you with my burning soul and we’re gonna get back up from here! Because my team is out there, and they’re coming for us!”

Galo’s usual burning soul-talk would have been endearing and even encouraging if things had been different. Lio _wanted_ to believe that Galo was right, that they could stay safe and that Galo’s tiny freezing gun, which wouldn’t even be enough to take down a single Burnish and was mostly used for quick self-defence, would be enough. That Burning rescue could somehow get their rescue gear in here quickly. And why not? They had drills. And Lucia was always prepared. But…

_BURNBRIGHTERFINDHOME!_

…it was very hard to just sit back and believe in that when the flames were so loud and angry, and when everything was hurting and _burning_ in a way Lio had never experienced before.

He glared at the flames. They had once been his friends. Well, probably not these specific ones had been, but the Promare were technically one anyway, so it probably didn’t matter. Was this some kind of irony? He’d always been so attuned to the flames, and now they couldn’t hear him, but were instead very much going to kill him.

Not that they _should_ hear him, really. No matter how much a part of him wanted to. These flames were not alright, and it would be dangerous to bind them to a human. Phedra had said that they were killing her, as they were probably killing all the other Burnish who had gone missing.

Then again…

He glanced at Galo, who was sweating and gritting his teeth, using his own body to shield Lio and shooting ice from an already depleting magazine of his gun. It was so likely that they’d both die here in the next minute or two anyway. No matter how much Galo believed, in the end fire was just fire, and it didn’t care how burning of a soul it would have to snuff out.

Lio stared at the flames again. They were so familiar it hurt. He wanted to scream at them to stop. That it was okay and that they were friends. But it would be no use. Flames didn’t know how to speak. They didn’t have ears, nor did they really hear anything but nerve signals and emotions. Or maybe those were the same thing. And even if they did hear him, they would probably only…

His thoughts ground to a halt for a split second, and then…

Yes. It was worth a shot.

Better that than both of them dying here.

Lio raised his hand and punched the rubble next to him as hard as he could. His knuckles split even under his gloves, but he didn’t care. He gathered up all the anger he had condensed into himself throughout the years, and then imagined the face of the person he still hated the most in this world. And he screamed:

“DAMN YOU KRAY FORESIGHT!”

“Lio?” Galo said, “ _What_?”

The air burned. Lio punched the wall again.

Kray. Those _fucking_ experiments of his had done _this as well_! Wasn’t it enough that he had almost destroyed the world and used thousands of Burnish lives to do that? Did he have to ruin people’s lives retroactively even when he was locked up?

No. He wouldn’t succeed. He didn’t _deserve_ any kind of victory! Not over the Burnish! Not by killing him and definitely not by killing Galo!

Lio’s rage almost faltered, got diluted into grief and panic when he thought back to Galo being shot. Then to the flames that were an even worse threat. To the idea that Galo would be…

_Not now, damn it!_

Another punch. It hurt so much that he had probably broken something. But that didn’t matter. Soon, no injury would matter, however this would end. He just used the pain and the burning heat to get even angrier. He screamed again, and it _should work_ because damn it he was _good_ at being angry, and-!

He gasped when he felt something very familiar spark in his chest.

He stood, and the roar in his ears became even louder. So loud that he didn’t hear Galo yell after him.

“Stay here!” he shouted anyway, because Galo was enough of an idiot to probably think of following him, “Keep yourself safe!”

He ran, scrambled over the rubble, away from Galo and their tiny safe spot that wasn’t really even safe. He reached the fire just as it ignited inside him too.

Phedra had been right; this one _did_ hurt.

* * *

As optimistic as Galo always was, he had to admit that they had just stumbled into a pretty tight spot. At least he’d managed to block the initial surge of flames. If the fire had got into the tunnels right away, it would have washed over them and scorched them instantly. At least here, sandwiched between pieces of rubble and an ice wall keeping the flames at bay, they still had time. Sure, it was a very small ice wall, created by a gun not really meant for that sort of thing. Sure, it might not last long because the fire kept melting it and the air quality was getting so bad they might pass out from the lack of oxygen soon. And _sure_ , Lio appeared to be having some sort of fit. But there was _no way_ Galo Thymos would give up because things were getting a bit desperate and he was getting a little singed. This would be _fine_!

Except then Lio stood up and ran into the flames.

“Lio! What are you _doing_! Get back here!”

“Stay here!” Lio shouted, “Keep yourself safe!”

Lio spread his arms and then his eyes were on fire. And his arms. And hair. Everything was on fire, and Galo almost rushed in to pull him out until he realised what was going on.

Lio opened his mouth and screamed fire into the ceiling, eyes wide open and still white-hot with flames. His jacket burned, then his waistcoat and shirt, but Lio didn’t care. He stood still and yelled until his voice gave out, and then he lowered his head and turned a wide-eyed stare at Galo.

His eyes weren’t on fire anymore, but full of pain instead. He squeezed his hands into fists, and the fire around them spiralled, pink and cyan fragmenting into tiny shards. They spun upwards around Lio and then surged into him. It would have looked beautiful if Lio’s face hadn’t been twisted into a pained grimace. He didn’t stop until all the flames were absorbed into him or thrown against the rubble and solidified into random cyan shapes, until all that was left was a completely busted underground pit. And Galo. And Lio.

Galo wasn’t sure when the last time he had breathed was. Lio swayed on his feet, and then looked up at Galo. He was trying to smile, but it didn’t look very convincing.

“Are… are you… o…?” he started, but his voice faded out, and he collapsed before he got to the end.

“Lio!” Galo vaulted over rubble and ran across an uneven ground. He gathered Lio into his arms and shook him. It reminded him eerily of the time when they had been fighting Kray, when Lio had been dying and _nope_ , that was _not_ a good memory and Galo didn’t want to repeat that! At least now Lio was intact, and he was breathing. But he was definitely unconscious, and his body felt hot to the touch. Had it felt the same when Lio had had his fire the first time? Or was it a sign of something bad?

 _“Galo?”_ Lucia asked, her voice struggling through interference, _“We’re almost there.”_

“Where’ve you guys been?”

_“Hey, it’s not our fault you guys can make stuff happen so fast! It’s barely been fifteen minutes since we last talked!”_

“What? Really?”

 _“Yeah. What are you_ doing _down there?”_

Galo hoisted Lio over his shoulder and started making his way up the uneven slope that was made of broken concrete and solidified flames.

“So… a lot of stuff just happened,” he said, “It’s bad.”

 _“Yikes. If_ you _say_ _it’s bad, then it’s awful.”_

Galo felt Lio’s too high body heat against his back, tried to listen to Lio’s stuttering heartbeat and fearing it would suddenly disappear. Yeah. It was awful alright.

_“We’re looking for you now.”_

“Great! Thanks.”

It didn’t take that long to scale the slope back up. Galo laid Lio on the ground and arranged Lio’s body into the recovery position. Then he stood up to look at the destruction.

Had everyone else made it out? The last unconscious guy at least was probably under rubble, or worse. That was… _so_ not good. How about Alixia? Or those other guys? And where did his Matoi go? Lucia wouldn’t be happy if he’d wrecked it. He should have kept a better hold on it! Ground exploding under his feet was no excuse to lose his best tool!

There was a shuffling behind him, and Galo sighed.

“So yeah, I know it looks bad, guys, but…”

 _“Who’re you talking to?”_ Lucia asked, _“We’re not there yet.”_

Galo’s eyes widened, and he was about to turn when what was probably the barrel of a gun hit him strategically to the back of the neck. He went down, dazed but awake enough to see Kev’s face loom above him.

“Oh come _on_ …” Galo slurred, “Why’d you come _back_?! This place is a death trap!”

Kev shrugged.

“What can I say? I’m a determined guy.”

He hit Galo again, and this time Galo did lose consciousness.

* * *

When Lio woke up, it was to a chorus of confused whispers about burning and finding a way home, and a feeling like fire ants crawling inside his chest and brain. That was a gross image, one he tried to shake off immediately after he got it. He also tried to force the whispers into the background. He had done it before, the last time the fire had asked him to burn everything. He had made it a constant buzz he could almost ignore most of the time. Now it was more difficult, and Lio wasn’t sure if it was because he hadn’t needed to do it in two years, or because the flames were different now.

He blinked and saw a blinding white ceiling that was darkened just a bit in places. It didn’t look familiar. Waking up in unfamiliar surroundings was always bad. Lio didn’t move right away, mostly because he didn’t feel like he had the strength to do that yet, but also because it was safer to take a moment to figure out what was going on first. A preliminary check. It was easier to act when one wasn’t going in completely blind. He was on an admittedly comfortable bed – not even restrained in any way, which was definitely promising – in a room with not much else at the moment. On one wall, screens displayed some numbers and lines and made tiny beeps, but that was it.

His dress shirt and suit were gone – but he distinctly remembered them burning and/or melting away anyway – replaced with a too-large, white T-shirt made out of soft, heat-resistant materials that could withstand some Burnish fire. His own fireproof pants had survived, and they were thankfully still on him. He tried to move, and found that he could. The lingering burning sensation in his chest and somewhere behind his eyes wasn’t a good sign, but at least he was pretty sure he knew what it was. He turned his head and saw that one of the walls wasn’t white, but rather see-through, with another white room behind it. There was a chair in that room, and Galo was sitting on it.

Lio had so many questions right now.

When Lio finally raised his head, Galo also looked up, and his face brightened. He seemed to be unharmed, which made Lio feel a little better.

“Lio!” Galo got up, pressing his hands against what Lio assumed was fireproof glass, “You feeling alright?”

“Good enough”, Lio said and slowly sat up. He didn’t feel worse when he was upright, so he dared to slide off the bed and walk over to the wall, “And you?”

“Me?” Galo sounded almost offended, “You’re the one who’s been out for like… two days!”

“What?! Two- _How_? And where _are_ we?”

“The gun guys took us here,” Galo said, “This is that facility Phedra was talking about. She’s here too, by the way, and she’s doing better now. The people here are really nice, and they’ve been taking care of both her and you. You were in pain and were having these fire spasms, and they had to put you in this room so you wouldn’t hurt anyone accidentally.”

“Wait…” Lio squinted at Galo and tried to keep up. It was harder with the Promare constantly trying to get his attention, “The gun guys? So… we’ve been captured?”

“Oh, yeah, super captured,” Galo said almost cheerfully, “But it could be worse! At least we found the missing Burnish! They’re all here!”

Lio stared. Galo rubbed the back of his neck a bit sheepishly.

“But uh… I have no idea where this place is, and they took all my stuff so I don’t think Burning Rescue knows where we are either. But… well, like I said, could be worse. Well, aside from…”

His face fell, and he stared at Lio with eyes that were a bit red around the edges. Lio realised that he’d been crying at some point, not long ago. Galo breathed in deeply, seemed to think very carefully on something, and then said in a wavering voice:

“So, you got your fire back.”

Lio nodded, not sure where this was going.

“Is it like before?” Galo asked, and something about the whole conversation was so careful. Like one wrong word could break everything.

Was it? It had been so sudden, so hectic, that Lio hadn’t had time to really think about it. Something that had been taken away was back, after Lio had just almost come to terms with it being gone. The flames were back, and they were lovely and warm and familiar. Lio had missed them so much. And yet…

“It’s…” Lio wetted his lips, tried to find the words, “Mostly. It’s mostly the same. It feels…”

It felt like coming home, except someone had broken into that home before he’d got there and now it didn’t feel safe like it used to. Did that make sense? Would any of this ever make sense to someone who had never known the flames?

“It feels like something’s not right,” he managed.

“Do they still hurt?”

“A little. But Phedra said it should pass in a few days.”

“Yeah,” Galo said. He was now leaning his forehead against the glass, “Lio…”

He didn’t get any farther than that, because a door next to Galo opened, and two men walked in. The first one had long black hair tied in a tight ponytail. He was wearing a white lab coat and holding a tablet. Next to him was a man whom Lio recognised from Nia Morado’s description.

“Hello,” the first man said, “My name is Fenn Meers. This is Eon Morado. I’m so glad you’re finally up. Welcome to the Last Refuge of the Flame, Lio Fotia.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...seriously, don't think you can engage an armed person in hand-to-hand irl. Even if they're wielding "just" a sharp object, don't.
> 
> My brain somehow went: "well, I've already got so many named side-characters that I definitely don't need to give any personality to these faceless goons to make things even more messy" AND "personality to these faceless goons? Coming right up!!!" at the same time.
> 
> But anyway, update stuff: I've managed to crank these long-ass chapters out quickly for two reasons: one, I've been inspired, and two: I've been unemployed all summer, so I've had A LOT of free time. But next week I'll be going back to work (yay!), so it means I'll have way less time to write. Also while I am still inspired, I have to do some tweaks and details to my outline from this point on, as we move from the mystery to the part of the story where I try to explore the characters and the themes I've tried to somewhat set up during the mystery more. Good news is I feel like I do characters and themes better than I do plot, so... I might still be able to write pretty fast, but I don't know for sure.
> 
> Also I'm probably going to start working on my other non-fanfic writing projects again because I'm feeling less of a writer's block now. So yay! This story worked for that! But that means less time for this. I AM very much planning to finish this fic, though. My perfectionism won't let me just post fanfics and leave them floating around the internet unfinished. Also this has been really fun to write.
> 
> I am so happy for all the feedback I've got so far! Thank you all who've read and kudos'd and commented! Stay safe everyone!


	8. Illuminate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The people behind everything finally explain what is going on. A heart-to-heart is needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beware, this ended up as a monster of a chapter with over 9000 words! And it's almost all exposition with just some fluff and angst thrown in. So... just a heads-up.

_Soon after the first of the flames had been sparked in safehouse 14, Old Eon Morado and Fenn Meers shook hands. It wasn’t the warm, firm handshake of trust, but a tentative one with some hidden agendas behind it. A year before that, a much more genuine touching of hands had happened between a former Foresight fan and a Burnish._

_It had happened at the ruins of the Parnassus, right after the world had burned. When Galo Thymos and Lio Fotia had bumped fists and agreed that saving the world didn’t mean they should stop helping._

_Their bond had started there, in trust and the kind of understanding only fusing souls inside a giant mech could create. Aina had called them fire-forged friends, and Galo had found it both hilarious and accurate. Of course, it hadn’t meant that Galo and Lio would immediately move in together and get domestic and that everything would just be okay. First, Lio had gone to prison for almost destroying the city in his one-dragon quest for vengeance. Galo had visited him often, but after Lio had got out six months later, they had gone their separate ways, only occasionally meeting up while trying their best to help rebuild the city from the ruins and surprisingly organised anarchy it had been plunged into after their fight with Kray._

_They’d both had their own things to figure out, their own healing to do. But Galo had missed Lio the entire time. After a while he had started to arrange meetings, because Lio clearly wasn’t taking care of himself and maybe needed someone to talk to. And if Galo was being honest – and he always was – it was also because Lio made him feel things. It was a kind of feeling people probably got in movies when they saw someone walking in blurry slow-motion with their hair blowing in a non-existent wind, except the person was also walking away from a (fire-safely computer-generated) explosion without looking at it and somehow also had the air of someone who would be fun to watch old samurai movies with. Two people simply couldn’t be forced to co-pilot a mech together in an attempt to save the world and not become something together. And it wasn’t just that; they had saved each other, shared souls and flames, burned together. If that wasn’t kindling for the most epic of bonds, then nothing was._

_They had clicked so well, probably because they were so different in some ways and yet so similar. They were both good at listening, and they spent a lot of time just talking. Sometimes about things they liked, like firefighting_ _or motorcycles. Sometimes about things that were difficult, like losing loved ones or trying to figure out who one was. It could have kept building comfortably, sneaking up on them without any dramatic epiphanies, but this was not how their lives seemed to work. It was dramatics or nothing, and this was too big to be nothing._

 _The moment Galo realised just how much he felt about Lio happened about three months after Lio had been released from prison. Lio was visiting Burning Rescue HQ for one reason or another. Galo didn’t know why he was there, because he was distracted by a news report about Kray Foresight. He stared at the TV and felt so awful about it all. He had looked up to Kray, thought him his hero. And because of that, he hadn’t seen the horrible things he’d done. He had_ helped _Kray even without really knowing it, catching Burnish and letting Kray’s Freeze Force take them who knows where. And-_

_“Galo.”_

_He looked up. Lio had stepped between him and the TV, hands on his hips and looking like a fusion of a biker and a prince. He had apparently taken one look at Galo, then at the news, and put two and two together._

_“Hey,” Galo tried to smile, “What’s up?”_

_“Are you seriously going to let that bastard get you down?” Lio asked, “Foresight’s locked up, and yeah, if you ask me, that’s way too good for him. But he’s gone. There’s no need to let him ruin any more lives.”_

_“…yeah. You’re right,” Galo said, not really able to get his own soul to burn at the moment. It was so annoying and not like him at all. Lio studied him for a moment, and then he sighed. He walked to a corner, where Galo’s_ matoi _was leaning against a wall. Not his mech one, but his traditional, actual_ matoi _flag, which he kept around for sentimental and geeky reasons. Lio grabbed it and hauled it over his shoulder._

_“What are you doing?” Galo asked, “That’s mine.”_

_“Of course it’s yours,” Lio said, “No one else here likes this weird crap.”_

_“Hey! It’s_ not _weird! Give it back!”_

_Lio smirked._

_“No.”_

_Galo had stood up from his chair, but he didn’t have time to do or say anything else before Lio took off running. And it was so sudden that Galo’s mind had to do several double takes until it got back into working order again._

_“Hey!” he shouted and ran after Lio, “Get back here!”_

_They ran up the fire station’s maintenance staircase, all the way to the roof. There Lio stopped and stared into the distance. He pointed the_ matoi _towards the skyscraper-blocked horizon._

_“See that?” he said._

_Galo had been_ this _close to jumping at Lio and wrestling the_ matoi _from his hands, but now he stopped, catching his breath and squinting at the buildings._

_“See what?”_

_“Well, nothing, because it’s not really visible, but somewhere in there, Foresight’s locked up. And if I’ve got anything to say about it, he’s never getting out or hurting anyone again.”_

_He jabbed a finger at Galo’s chest._

_“And_ anyone _includes you,” he said, “He’s not worth your time and definitely not worth any tears. He’s there, and you’re here. With your stupid flag and all. Are you going to just let him still walk over you, or are you going to show the world your firefighter spirit? The one you used to punch him to next week and save me_ and _the world?”_

_Galo was staring. Slowly, his mouth melted into the widest grin his facial muscles could manage._

_“Well?” Lio asked, “What are you going to do, Galo Thymos?”_

_Galo’s heart was so full and warm, and he spread his arms and lowered himself on one knee._

_“Get on, Lio. If we’re gonna yell at that guy, then we’ll do it together! Lio de Galon!”_

_Lio faltered for only a moment, but then he laughed softly._

_“I guess I walked into this one. Fine. But only this once.”_

_Lio climbed onto Galo’s shoulders, and Galo stood as tall as he could. They lifted the_ matoi _flag towards the skies and cursed Kray Foresight with all their might._

_“Yeah! You hear that, Kray?!” Galo shouted at the end, “You didn’t extinguish my soul back when you almost killed this world, and you’re not doing it now either! I’m going to fix everything you broke! You’ll see!”_

_Then he glanced up at Lio, and they laughed. He hadn’t heard Lio laugh that often, and it was always wonderful, like a solar eclipse. Rare and bright. And for a moment Galo felt like he’d never be able to let Lio go, and it was so exhilarating that it scared him._

_But he did. For a while. A month later, he asked Lio to move in with him._

* * *

Two days before Lio Fotia woke up in an unfamiliar room, and only about five minutes after the sketchy off-road car had sped out of the side street it had been parked in, Burning Rescue arrived at the scene. Aina Ardebit was the first one there; with her rescue jet she could manoeuvre easily above the streets and even land in narrow spaces. As she got in close, she was faced with a cracked street that had started to cave in in places.

“Okay,” she said, “That’s not good.”

It was especially not good because they had lost radio contact with Galo only a few minutes before. Abruptly, and after he had said it was bad, and it had sounded like there had been someone there with him. Aina sighed.

“What did you two get yourselves into?”

She couldn’t do much about the rubble before Varys and Remi arrived with equipment better for clearing out heavy objects and rescuing people who had been stuck. The whole time she waited anxiously, trying in vain to contact Galo. There was no response on his phone either. Aina even tried Lio, but got similar results.

“Shit,” she muttered, and then looked up to see Varys and Remi clanking to the scene with their mechs, “Hey! Good timing! We need to get under the street!”

It was tedious work, but they managed to secure the tunnel below enough so that Aina dared to get out of her jet and jump in. She lit a flashlight, looked around, saw even more destruction, and had a very particular kind of sinking feeling she often had. She got it when someone had done something stupid and she hadn’t been able to do anything to stop them. Sometimes being a level-headed person surrounded by mad scientists and impulsive hotheads was so stressful.

“We’ll need a cleanup crew here,” she said, “But I’m going further in. The tunnel looks stable ahead.”

 _“Be careful,”_ Varys said.

“Always am,” Aina said and started walking.

The tunnel had a few twists and turns, all cracked ominously from the seams. At one point the floor had risen up like a wave on a beach. It was definitely not pretty. She felt shivers running down her spine. When she came across a body lying on the floor, her breath caught in her throat.

Coming across bodies wasn’t unheard of in the firefighter’s profession. Aina’s career hadn’t yet been long enough for her to get too desensitised to it, but she had steely enough nerves to keep her focus and remember why she was there. She pressed her mouth into a tight line for only a second and then called out. The person didn’t respond, but at least they seemed to be breathing. She crept closer and saw a silver dress and then dark, dishevelled hair.

“Guys,” she said, “I think I found that woman whose party Galo and Lio were in. She’s injured. Get in here fast!”

In the end, they dug up four people. One of them had been crushed under rubble and needed immediate medical attention. He might not walk again, but the other three would probably be fine with some fixing up. Galo and Lio weren’t among them, however, and Aina’s bad feeling got even worse.

“Seriously, what the _hell_ did they get themselves into…?”

* * *

It was too early for this kind of thing. Or was it late? Lio didn’t even know what time it was, and now he was supposed to somehow make sense of them being captured, the Promare being back, and the mystery – the one they’d spent _months_ trying to solve – deciding to walk in and introducing itself. Probably. He didn’t really know what to say yet, so he resorted to just staring. The man named Fenn Meers – whoever he was – looked almost amused when he stared back.

“I never thought we’d get anyone so… famous here,” Meers said, “From what I hear, there was quite a commotion back in Promepolis.”

“One of us was lost there, right?” asked Eon Morado, sounding genuinely upset. Lio could only nod solemnly. Eon sighed, “They both should have stayed here. It’s dangerous to go out like that! And they stole…”

“Eon,” Meers said in a calming tone, “It’s alright. We can monitor the situation, but from what our retrieval team told us, it doesn’t sound like what happened made too many waves. We can still cover it up.”

“I know…” Eon sighed, “It’s just… Terri might not have-“

“We don’t know that,” Meers smiled sadly, “And at least we got Phedra back safely. And the Promare.”

He looked at Lio, his smile shrinking a bit.

“Even if it came back with an unexpected host.”

“I think we’re all unpleasantly surprised about a lot of things here,” Lio said tiredly, “Can you explain what’s going on?”

Now Meers chuckled, and still didn’t sound very happy.

“Ah, yes. Everyone has questions at this point. I promise we’ll answer them soon. But first, let’s do a quick check, shall we? I’m here to make sure you recover properly. How are you feeling?”

“Good enough,” Lio said. Might as well get this over with, “Are you two in charge here?”

“Sort of,” Eon said, “But we have a council as well.”

“And this place is?”

“A new home for some, we hope,” Meers said, “We’ll show you in just a moment. But for now, I can tell you that no one is going to hurt you. Are you in any pain?”

“Not really.”

“Are you sure?”

“There’s a bit of burning in my head and chest, but it’s basically nothing. Are you responsible for kidnapping people from Promepolis?”

Meers didn’t seem to hear Lio’s question. He simply tapped his tablet screen for a bit.

“The pain sounds about right…” Meers mumbled, “Or well, not right, but familiar. How much do _you_ know about what’s happening here?”

“I know Burnish have gone missing from Promepolis,” Lio said, wondering just how much he should give away, “And I know it has something to do with you and this place. And that you apparently found some Promare who had been left behind when the dimensional rift closed.”

“We did indeed,” Eon said and sighed, “Well, that’s one epic reveal kind of ruined. Not that you’d be surprised at this point, considering you already found one of them.”

“But at least this makes some things much easier to explain,” Meers said, “How are the Promare? Do they feel like they used to?”

Lio studied Meers with narrowed eyes.

“What do you know about what’s wrong with the Promare here?”

“A fair bit,” Meers smiled, “I may not be Burnish, but I’ve studied the Promare for a long time. Although… to my shame, I didn’t know what they _were_ until Dr. Prometh’s research was published two years ago. But I’ve been here, taking care of the Promare and more recently the Burnish, and I’ve been learning so much. So I can assure you that I know what I’m doing and I’m using all my knowledge the best I can to treat you and everyone here, to help them through the first few days.”

He checked something on his tablet again.

“You had some severe episodes of spontaneous combustion the first day you were here. You managed to destroy all the furniture in there. We brought in a new bed, and we’re really hoping you won’t melt that one too. We’re not made of beds. At least the flames have calmed down considerably in the last ten hours. How do you feel now? Any signs of uncontrollable fire?”

Lio raised a hand and focused, calling forth the first flame in two years. It flickered to life on his hand, pink and cyan and so painfully familiar. Lio almost wanted to cry, but that would have to come later, if ever. Right now, there were too many questions to get out of the way first.

“No,” he said, “At least not at the moment. I’m in control.”

It was both a statement and a threat. A reminder that he could and would fight back if needed. He may not be entirely sure what was going on, and the situation may look somewhat unthreatening, but he sure as hell wouldn’t let his guard down.

“Good,” Meers said, “The symptoms may not be completely gone, but your vitals are normal, as is your body temperature. For a Burnish, that is. That’s very promising.”

“So he’s okay?” Galo asked.

“It’s normal for the Burnish to have trouble with controlling their flames in the beginning,” Meers said, “For those who have already gone through that phase – which is all of the Burnish here – this second time around should only last for the first few days. The pain should dissipate for the most part after that as well. From what I know, Mr. Fotia here has been very well trained in the use of the flames, and he had a very strong connection to the Promare, so I’d wager he’ll be just fine soon enough.”

He smiled at Lio.

“Your friend here has refused to leave your side. He’s been so worried. And watching us very carefully."

He laughed, this time in amusement.

“I can understand that. This all must seem very suspicious to both of you.”

“We’ll explain everything, though,” Eon said, “Right now, if you wish.”

“I do,” Lio said, not very politely.

Meers put his tablet away and spread his arms as if presenting a circus act.

“The Last Refuge of the Flame is a project, small in scale, but hopefully significant in impact. We have two main goals: one, to reunite the Burnish with the fire they lost, and two, to prove to the world that the Burnish and non-Burnish can coexist peacefully.”

He smiled.

“We’ve had to keep this all secret from everyone, of course. Tensions are still so high between the Burnish and the non-Burnish, not to mention the general uncertainty in the world right now… we don’t know what would happen if the wrong people found out about this. So I’m sorry to say that we can’t let you leave this place yet.”

“You can’t keep us here against our will!” Galo immediately snapped.

“We’re sorry,” Meers said, “It won’t be forever. Just for a while longer. It’s for the protection of the people.”

“What if we’re gonna leave anyway?”

“We have guards for that,” Meers shrugged, “Though we need to tighten security, it seems. After Terri and Phedra panicked like that… well, we saw that what we have now isn’t enough to keep people safe.”

“I can understand wanting to keep this a secret,” Lio said in a dangerously quiet voice, “But how is that an excuse to abduct people and keep them prisoner?”

He looked at Eon.

“You’re Burnish yourself. Why would you do that when you _know_ what has already happened to us? You even kidnapped your own nephew!”

“Hey! I never meant to bring Jace here,” Eon growled, arms crossed defensively across his chest, “He ran away from home and sneaked aboard my car when I was leaving! And when he was here, it was too late to send him back. But he’s happy here! And so is everyone else!”

“I find it very hard to believe any of that,” Lio said.

“Well, then let us show you what we’re about,” Meers said, “If you can be civil about this, that is, and not attack anyone here. Your friend here has been very well-behaved so far, and I hope you can cooperate as well.”

Lio glared at him. Minutes passed, or maybe just seconds. Whatever they were, they were so tense they probably made the time-space continuum fray a little bit at the edges.

“Fine,” Lio finally said, “As sketchy as this all looks, I’m going to give you one chance to explain. But you’d better make it count.”

“Great!” Meers chirped, “So, since you’re stable, it’s probably safe to let you out of the observation room for a little while.

“Just tell us if you feel like burning,” Eon said, “Not all of us are fireproof here.”

Meers pushed a button somewhere. A door in the glass wall slid open.

“This can also be opened from the inside,” Eon said, “We can show you how later. But I’m sure that’s not your first question.”

Lio stepped out of the room, and Galo immediately rushed to gently grab Lio’s shoulders.

“Are you _sure_ you’re alright?” he asked.

“Yes,” Lio whispered, “We can talk about it later, okay?”

Galo hesitated, but then nodded and somewhat reluctantly let go. They walked shoulder-to-shoulder after Meers and Eon, who led them through a narrow, clinical-looking corridor. More observation rooms lined it, and Lio noted with some disgust that they had probably at one point been observation _cells_ instead.

“This used to be a Foresight Foundation research facility,” Eon explained as they walked, “Fenn had been working here, so he knew about it, and he came to me and some other Burnish and asked us to take it over. You know, poetic or something. Taking back a place that had imprisoned some of our flames. And maybe some of us too. And you know, stealing from Foresight is always great.”

“And everyone just followed this former Foresight employee into a research facility?” Lio asked, taking care that everyone heard the scepticism oozing from this voice.

“Well, not exactly,” Meers said, “But I know you won’t believe me if I just start explaining without any proof. Why don’t we take a quick tour and you can meet with some of the residents?”

They walked through a sliding door and into a large room that looked like a repurposed office. The desks had been pushed to the walls, and the chairs had been arranged into a circle. In some corners, room dividers and small couches had been arranged into smaller sitting spaces. A few people were sitting or lounging around the room, reading battered books or quietly chatting in corners. When Meers, Eon, Lio, and Galo stepped in, most of them looked up, and a couple hurried to stand with weird looks on their faces.

“Oh, wow,” one whispered, “It’s really them!”

From one corner, a voice shouted out:

“ _Lio_!”

Lio turned to see a young woman rushing from behind a room divider, auburn hair flying every which way and brown eyes shining with recognition.

“Carlya?” Lio said just before Carlya collided with him and wrapped him into a tight hug.

“AreyouokayIheardyouwe’rebroughtheretooand-“

“I’m fine,” Lio gasped, “Are you?”

“I’m doing great! I’ve made lots of friends here!”

“Good. Can you…?”

“Oh, sorry,” Carlya let him go and then looked up at Galo, “Hey! You’re that firefighter Lio set the world on fire with! So cool to have you here too! Are you also on fire now?”

“No!” Galo said immediately, “That’s the opposite of my job!”

“Okay,” Carlya said, “Not that fire matters. I mean, I’m not on fire either. These guys were _so_ disappointed when that happened. The first poor soul they lured in from Promepolis, and she didn’t even awaken!”

“We’re happy to have you here no matter what,” Eon said, “I don’t have the flames either.”

“Sure, sure,” Carlya said and didn’t even look at Eon, “I’m so glad you guys are here! Though I bet people are going to notice that _you’re_ gone. That’s gonna raise a few eyebrows. And by eyebrows I mean possibly a riot.”

“I really hope it won’t come to that,” Lio said, “People have already been worried ever since you disappeared.”

“What? _Me_?”

“Yes. Your friend reported you missing.”

Carlya looked legitimately taken aback by that.

“Who?” she stammered, “Wait… Marie?”

“Yes.”

“Oh…” her face fell, “I didn’t think… I didn’t think anyone would even notice I was gone. That’s partly why I came here.”

“You agreed to come here?”

“Yeah,” Carlya said, “I was depressed and felt like nothing mattered. I had a place in a shelter, which was great, and no one was trying to kill me – most of the time – but… I was lonely, and I didn’t know who I was. You know how it is.”

“…yes.”

Carlya smiled fondly at something, maybe a memory.

“So then I met an old friend of mine – named Valter. I hadn’t seen him in such a long time… He said he’d found the flames again. He _showed_ me the flames and told me he could help me find them too.”

“You didn’t think it might be a trap?” Lio asked.

“Oh, I thought about a lot of things,” Carlya said, “I’m not an idiot. But Valter was an old friend, and I figured it was worth the risk.”

She laughed bitterly.

“I really didn’t think anyone would care if I just left.”

“I’m so sorry you felt that way,” Lio said, something very cold crawling into his stomach and settling there, “That shouldn’t… I had no idea.”

“Like one person can know everything about their community,” Carlya shrugged, “So uh… did you notice the others disappearing too?”

“Yes,” Lio said, “Of course we did.”

“Oh, wow,” Carlya sighed, “Is that why you’re here? Did you try to find us?”

“Yes.”

“Well then… what a mess.”

“Yeah.”

“Hey, uh… I think your tour guides kinda want you to move on. And I… I’d like to think about stuff for a bit. Talk to me later, okay?”

“Carlya…” Lio tried, but Carlya shook her head.

“Trust me. I’m fine. Later, okay?”

“But… right. Okay.”

“Cool! See you. And take care.”

There were so many things Lio still wanted to ask, and so many things he wanted to say but didn’t know how. So he simply waved at Carlya and watched her go back into a corner, to talk with a man Lio didn’t recognise but assumed might have been Valter. Reluctantly, he let them be. He felt Galo’s worried stare on him, and maybe on Carlya too.

“You heard what she said,” he whispered, “Let’s just keep going for now.”

Meers and Eon led them to the next corridor, and then to a large entrance hall that had also been repurposed. Planters had been built all over the room, and while most of the plants in them were still small, it looked like a start of a very nice garden. Eon smiled proudly and gestured towards the planters.

“We got a pretty good selection here. Hopefully soon we won’t have to rely on just canned food and whatever our runners can scavenge.”

“Whoa…” Galo said, “You’re really building like… a small village here?”

“More or less,” Eon said, “It’s not much yet, but we make do with what we have and what we can get in secret. At least it doesn’t look much like it used to when we got here anymore. It used to be so lifeless and… cold. This is a far cry from that already.”

They were shown to a kitchen area, where boxes and refrigerators were stuffed full off non-perishable foods, and living quarters, which seemed to be mostly former offices and a research room or two. Beds had been shoved into corners, and most walls had been decorated with at least something personal.

“A good thing about this place was that it was built for a long-term project,” Meers said, “Scientists lived here for months before it was shut down, so we had plenty of beds and other comforts already in here. We managed to restore running water, and we even get electricity. This is hidden and safe, and we have guards in case anything might threaten us.”

 _Or escape,_ Lio couldn’t help thinking. He had seen the guards at some of the doors. But he had to admit that aside from the guards and the uncomfortable thought that this had once been a Foresight Foundation research facility, the place didn’t seem like a prison at all – despite totally being one. Nor did it seem that the people were protesting having to be there either. The residents were walking around freely, looking tentatively happy. Some were making tiny images out of flames in a corner, or laughing at jokes. It looked… well, it looked almost like the times Lio had managed to get a group of Burnish into a proper safe place and they could stop for a while. Except this place was technically even better than any of the places they’d ever found. In other circumstances Lio would have given the whole place a big personal stamp of approval.

For now, he still wasn’t going to just smile and forget the iffy stuff, though. Not even when he saw familiar faces. Not even when Eon smiled and said:

“We’ll all have dinner together in about half an hour. Do you want to join us?”

and Lio realised that he was actually hungry. And he wasn’t sure if Galo had eaten anything either during the time Lio had been unconscious. He glanced at Galo. He’d been weirdly quiet for almost the whole tour. Something had to be bothering him, which was understandable, because a lot of things were bothering Lio too. But it had to be something especially difficult because usually Galo wasn’t quiet about things that bothered him. No, instead he broadcasted them to everyone and declared that it was time to take action. He had even made a _slideshow_ about why the world should work differently once. Or twice. Lio would definitely have to ask what was bothering him.

But that would have to come later. For now, they went on. And as they did, they started seeing even more familiar faces. Some had stories similar to Carlya’s. They had met an old friend or acquaintance, presumably people from Alixia’s safehouse, and gone with them. Some more recently lost ones had been more straightforwardly lured into a discreet place by someone – usually Eon – and then spirited away into the facility. It turned out that not everyone who had ended up here from Promepolis had even made it to the missing person’s list. Some had apparently had the bright idea to lie to their friends and tell them they were going away for a longer time, so no one had worried. It was… well, in a way, Lio could understand it. Yes, being kidnapped was horrible, but it must have been a relief to be met with other Burnish, and the chance to regain one’s flames. Especially when most of the people here had no families and seemed to genuinely believe that they hadn’t been missed anyway. To be honest, it was a fucked up situation in so many ways, but it wasn’t _quite_ as awful as it could have been. And sadly, many Burnish had got used to taking what they could get.

It wasn’t right, though, and Lio would certainly need to talk to them about it. And he might have done it on the spot too had he not been so shocked about just how little he had _known_. He saw Jace Morado, who scowled at him and had apparently not been kidnapped but instead had run away from home and sought out his uncle because he had been so angry and dissatisfied with life in Promepolis. He met Aika Hadley, who had been initially very angry about being taken to the facility, but was now apparently much happier than she had been at home. He saw… well, everyone on his missing person’s list and then more. Everyone except Phedra, who was still recovering in one of the observation rooms, and Alec and Terri, who were now ashes. Alec’s partner Dalia greeted them with a hug and a sad smile, but then backed away into a corner where someone Lio didn’t know started to talk with her in a hushed voice. Lio wasn’t sure if Dalia was entirely aware of her surroundings at the moment. Her grief was still too fresh and all-consuming for that.

“I’m so sorry,” was all Lio could say at that moment, and he wasn’t sure if Dalia even heard it. Eon sighed.

“Losing Alec hit her hard,” he said, “And I understand. It hit us all hard. Some of us reacted so badly that they did stupid things.”

“Like ran away?” Galo asked, “Phedra told us they were trying to find help. That doesn’t sound very stupid to me.”

“They were running blindly into a city where displaying flames was a death sentence just two years ago,” Eon said, “Not the smartest thing to do either.”

“This isn’t the time to argue about that,” Meers said, “We’re almost done with our tour. I’d like to show you one more place.”

Meers led them to a door that was the only locked one they had seen so far – aside from the main doors – and swiped some kind of tiny chip over the lock.

“This is the heart of the facility, and one we’ve shown everyone who enters here. Here, we keep the Promare.”

The lock beeped, and the doors clunked open.

Behind was a room that was lit up entirely with white squares that spread all over the black walls. A jungle of wires and devices lined the ceiling, and a command centre of computer screens had been squeezed into a corner, but Lio didn’t really notice any of this. As soon as they had entered the vicinity of the room, the hum-whispers of frightened fire in Lio’s brain had become louder and louder. Now they were so loud, so many, that it was almost like being back in Foresight’s torture engine, hearing the flames and his people scream and shatter and then be moulded back into energy and-

“Lio? Hey, are you okay?! Lio!”

Lio blinked and felt Galo’s hands on his shoulders again, grounding and familiar. The air was charged with something inside that room. A room that was not an engine, or at least not _that_ engine, but close enough to remind him of it.

“Sorry,” Eon was saying, “We should have warned you. Some react pretty badly in here. Fenn here likes his dramatics, but I thought he was going to at least use his words a bit.”

He glanced at Meers.

“Come _on_ , you remember what happened to Aika, right?”

“Well, you could have warned them too!” Meers said, crossing his arms.

“Wait, what _happened_ to Aika?” Lio asked, trying his best to switch off both the traumatic memories and the alien fire radio channel in his head. It didn’t work, “Is she okay?”

“Yeah, she’s fine,” Eon said, “But she accidentally almost exploded a part of the room. We only barely got her out into the corridor.”

He nodded towards the scorch marks in the ceiling and the walls.

“Good thing this place is pretty fireproofed all over. One more reason why this is a good place for us.”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s great and all,” Galo said, his tone almost angry, “Can you close that door now?”

“Oh,” Meers said, “Of course.”

The door was slammed shut, but it didn’t really help much. Lio realised faintly that his hands had started shaking. They were also on fire. Somehow he noticed the shaking first. Galo was leading him somewhere, thankfully away from the door, and a few fuzzy, wavering seconds later Lio found himself back in the garden, where Galo sat him down on stairs that led to more offices/living quarters upstairs.

Lio blinked, and Galo’s blue eyes shone into focus. Then the rest of his face, and a little bit of his shoulders. Lio realised only now that Galo was wearing possibly facility-provided T-shirt and loose pants. Had Lio accidentally burned Galo’s suit too when he had awakened? Oh, crap they would be expensive to replace, and neither of them had a lot of money, and man, that was a random enough thought to snap him out of whatever flashback he had been about to take an involuntary dive into. Lio tried to breathe and not feel so much like there were millions of tiny claws scratching around in his skull. It had _definitely_ not been like this before. Not even at the hard times, when the Promare had been so, _so_ loud about wanting to burn.

“Lio?” Galo asked, “Hey, talk to me.”

“I…” Lio said, sounding even more dazed than he felt. Damn it, he didn’t have _time_ to break down now! He frowned at his hands until they stopped burning, “I’m okay.”

It was a lie, but he was going to cling to it until he could afford to crash. To prove his point, he stood up, found Eon and Meers, who were standing awkwardly in the sidelines, and walked over to them.

“Okay, so this all is… creepily impressive, but can you finally _really_ explain why you’ve done this, and what you’re planning?”

“You make it sound so sinister,” Meers said with a smile.

“Luring people into suspicious places and keeping them prisoner always sounds pretty sinister,” Lio pointed out.

“Okay… look…” Meers sighed, “Let’s go into my office, and I’ll explain what we’ve left out so far.”

Fenn Meers’s office was fairly small, but it overlooked the largest office. It was probably originally meant for some sort of overseer, looming over the workspace like that. At least the big windows had curtains, though they were open at the moment.

“So,” Meers said and nodded towards sleek, white chairs, “Sit down if you want.”

No one sat, except for Eon, who took a chair near the door. Lio crossed his arms and glared again. He was good at glaring. Meers withstood it for about three seconds before he averted his eyes and cleared his throat.

“Right. You wanted more answers. Of course. And we do want to be open about everything here.”

He waved his hand towards the window.

“I think we should start from the beginning. I indeed used to work here. I was supposed to study the flames that had been put into suspension, separated from the rest of the mass.”

“How did you manage to separate them?” Lio had to ask.

“It was a complicated process,” Meers said, “I don’t know the entirety of it, but the point of it was to see if we could somehow extract anomalies in the magma from the Earth’s core entirely. To stop the magma activity from getting out of control, you see. We knew enough to link the anomalies to the Burnish, so we also studied their flames here, not quite realising they were the same thing. But Foresight deemed the project a failure and shut it down.”

“Of course he would,” Lio muttered, “Although, considering how the Promare here are like, it wasn’t a very gentle process anyway, so maybe it was a…”

Oh, damn, he had almost called something Foresight had done a potentially _good_ call. The mere thought made him nauseous.

“You may be right,” Meers said, “When Foresight was revealed to be the monster he was, I was already working on other projects. I was shocked and disgusted about knowing I’d worked for someone like him… that I’d supported such a terrible system, even in my own little ways. I never hated the Burnish. I was cautious of them, of course, but I never thought someone would… you know.”

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“I felt like I needed to make amends. At first I didn’t know what to do, and I ended up hiding away in a shelter meant for Burnish. I had asked if I could stay, to see for myself what the Burnish were like, without propaganda and mass media colouring my perception. I was… happy there.”

“Then he got an idea,” Eon piped up, “He remembered the flames they’d stored in this place, went to check if they were still there, and… well…”

“I had seen how much the Burnish missed their flames,” Meers said, “And why not? It must have been a shock, suddenly losing something so closely tied to you. So I took a couple of flames with me and made a deal with the woman running the place.”

Lio and Galo both froze at that.

“You made a deal with Alixia Karis?” Lio asked.

“Oh, you know her?” Eon said, but Lio ignored the question.

“Alixia _let_ you take her people?” he said instead.

“No,” Meers said, “But she let me bring some of the flames into the safehouse. The people were so happy. For a while. But… well, like you said, the process of separating the flames from their source hadn’t been a gentle one, and it had left the Promare working differently than they should. It made merging with them difficult, and Ms. Karis told me I should stop the project in case something was seriously wrong with the Promare. But… what could we have done? Told the people who were so happy to have their flames back that their friends would never regain them?”

“Fenn got another idea, and we held a vote,” Eon said, “We agreed that we’d leave the place, secretly move here, and continue without Alixia’s approval.”

“And so you managed to slip by Alixia and empty one of her safehouses,” Lio said, “Then she covered it up and tried to find you herself.”

“She did?” Eon asked, “I mean… makes sense, I guess. She probably doesn’t want anyone knowing she had any part in this. And she’s a very stubborn woman.”

“You could say that,” Lio said dryly, “So… then how did this project of yours move on to kidnapping?”

“Since the Promare weren’t acting quite right, we needed more Burnish so we could figure out how to fix it. And we chose Promepolis because there we were most likely to find people who had been in that awful engine. We thought that since they had been the closest when the Promare were made to burn the world, they would have some better insight into things. So we asked if anyone here knew anyone from Promepolis and if they’d be willing to persuade some to come here. Later we… may have got a bit carried away with a couple people, but we-“

“ _Carried away_?” Galo repeated, “You’re taking people against their will!”

“The people are happy here!” Meers snapped, “And the moment we started realising that the flames might be deadly, we stopped fetching new people! We were going to figure it out, heal the Promare and the people, and then keep going until we could slowly introduce the Burnish back into the world in a controlled manner!”

“So the Promare really _are_ killing these people?” Galo said. Eon sighed.

“Well, yeah,” he admitted, “Most likely. We don’t know how fast or consistent it is, and that’s why we don’t want to make anyone panic by talking too much about it yet. The first death was from our safehouse. A woman named Sabine. We thought it was something else. But after Alec died in a similar way – sudden combustion and burnout afterwards – we realised that it probably was the Promare.”

“But we _will_ figure this out,” Meers said quickly, “We’re working on it even as we speak.”

Lio put a hand on his hip and used his other one to pinch the bridge of his nose.

“So… to summarise, you want to make amends for working on Foresight’s experiments by conducting a _new_ shoddy experiment without telling anyone, exploiting a very vulnerable group of people into working as your test subjects by baiting them with hope of regaining at least something they've lost, and then keeping them prisoner _and_ using them to kidnap even more people so you can conduct _even more_ experiments. And you’re also endangering their lives in the process. Did I get it right?”

Meers shifted his weight, almost embarrassed, but then his expression hardened into stubborn fury.

“Well, if you _really_ want to put it that way, it sounds pretty awful, but-”

“Because it _is_!” Lio hissed through gritted teeth, “Okay, yes, this all probably feels like a noble, the-end-justifies-the-means -kind of thing to you, and this place looks comfortable and all, but this is just a nicer version of what’s already been done to us!”

“Lio…” Eon said, “Calm down. You’re on fire.”

Lio looked down and saw that his hands were indeed on fire again. The cacophony of whispers had got louder again, and he was getting the worst headache in years. He tried to force the flames away, but they kept crawling up his arms. He could vaguely feel Galo’s presence next to him, probably torn between wanting to ground him again and not wanting to get burned. Eon shifted, standing up from his chair.

“Okay,” he said, “I know this all is a lot to take in. I’ll get you back into the observation room before you burn this whole place down. Can you control it until then?”

Lio managed a jerky nod, and he was led back into the clinical corridor. He could barely remember how they got there, but suddenly he was back behind the glass wall, and Galo was standing on the other side, looking so sad and worried that Lio hated that he was on fire right now. Lio tried to breathe again, but could only feel burning in his lungs. The fire spread slowly, tried to crawl into the seams of the floorboards but not quite managing it. Eon leaned forward against the window.

“Just between us,” he said, “We _know_ this isn’t okay. Well, most of us do. And most of us don’t care, because having the fire back is just too good. So I’ve heard, anyway.”

He winked.

“Try to calm down and rest, and once you’re okay, we’ll talk. Without Fenn. Deal?”

“Wait,” Galo said, “ _What?!_ So this wasn’t even everything yet?”

But Eon just smirked and said:

“Just keep an eye on your friend, Thymos. Talk to him. If he wants to get out and it seems safe, the button to open the room is there. And the other one inside the room is right next to the door. If he starts to really go out of control, push that red panic button or give us a wave. We’ll see you in the cameras.”

He pointed towards a corner, where a small box watched them with electronic eyes. Then he backed away into the corridor.

“W-wait!” Lio coughed out, but Eon was already gone, “DAMN IT! What the _hell_ is _wrong_ with this place?!”

It was too exhausting to keep the flames in, so he let go, watched them explode around him into an inferno that tried to melt the walls and burn the world.

_Burnbrighterfind…_

_Brighter_

_burn_

_find…_

_home_

Still so familiar and yet wrong. Shattered. It _hurt_ , and it shouldn’t.

When it was over, Lio was slumped on the floor with his side against the glass, dragging in ragged breaths and feeling so, _so_ tired and angry at this whole situation.

“Lio?” Galo asked, strangely cautious and not like Galo at all.

“I’m… better,” Lio rasped, “It’s… I’m back in control now.”

“Does it hurt?”

“No more than before,” Lio said and then buried his face into his hands, “It’ll be fine. I just have to… We need to… no, I… damn it! It’s hard to think with all this _noise_!”

“Is it the Promare?” Galo asked.

“Yeah. They’re… they’re not making a whole lot of sense. Well, aside from what we already know about them.”

Galo bit his lip and sat down right next to Lio, again thinking very hard on something. It reminded Lio of before. Of the recently-cried Galo who had had something important to say. Something that might break things if said wrong.

“Galo?”

“Yeah?”

“Are _you_ okay? You’ve been so quiet. It’s really not like you.”

“I’m not the one on fire, and… and…”

“Let’s not make this a competition. You’re upset, and I’ll keep worrying about that on top of everything else if you won’t tell me what’s wrong.”

Galo closed his eyes tightly and clenched his hands into fists. There was a moment of silence, and Lio didn’t know if Galo was being stubborn or just gathering the strength to say something especially difficult.

“I’m sorry,” Galo said.

“About what?”

“I should’ve protected you better. Maybe then none of this would’ve happened. We’d still be in Promepolis, and we could figure this out from there and have help, and… and you wouldn’t be-”

“Galo,” Lio raised his hand before Galo could say anything else, “It wasn’t your fault. You acted fast, and did what you could. This time… just… well, sometimes everything we do isn’t enough, and we have to make hard decisions. I made mine, and it worked.”

“Wait, what?” Galo frowned, “I thought the Promare just _happen_ to the Burnish. Did you somehow trigger them on purpose?”

Oh, maybe this wasn’t the best of times to talk about that. But Lio had already said this much. Might as well continue.

“I tried,” he said, “That’s why I got so mad. They understand anger the most. Through it they can almost hear us.”

Galo was staring at him, jaw slack.

“I did that to save us,” Lio said, “Because it looked like we were running out of time.”

“But… but did you- _huh_?”

“What?”

Galo waved his arms wildly, now angry enough to probably trigger something too if he’d had the inclination.

“ _What?_ What do you mean _what?!_ Did you forget that Phedra had _just said_ that those flames would kill you?!”

It would have been so easy to lie. To put on a surprised face and just go: “Oh.” But that wouldn’t be fair to anyone. And Lio had always been a very honest person anyway.

So he just said:

“I didn’t.”

“ _What?!_ ”

“It was either that or letting both of us die right there!” Lio snapped, “I’d say one of us possibly dying months later is a _way_ better option!”

“The better option is _nobody_ dying!” Galo shouted, jumping to his feet and pacing dramatically, “We could’ve found another way! You _promised_ you’d take care of yourself!”

“When I made that promise I didn’t know I’d have to face an out-of-control alien fire! I don’t know what kind of fairyland you live in, Galo, but sometimes we need to make sacrifices!”

He’d stood up too, and his hands were tingling again in anticipation of burning. He forced it down. This time it worked. Galo was glaring at him, forehead almost squished against the glass.

“Well, I don’t want to see anyone – especially _you_ – making sacrifices for me!” Galo yelled, “You… I…!”

“I’ll decide who I make sacrifices for!” Lio snapped back, “Why are you so angry about this?! You’re a firefighter! Your _job_ is to endanger yourself for others!”

“BECAUSE IF I’M NOT ANGRY, I’LL JUST BE UPSET! You _can’t_ be-”

“Okay, I get it!” Lio screamed, “No need to shout!”

Of course Lio had known that Galo wouldn’t be happy about this. Lio hadn’t been happy about it either. But to actually hear it was maybe a bit too much right now, in Lio’s exhausted and confused state. Hell, they were _both_ exhausted. Lio was pretty sure Galo was crying again. Lio pressed his hand to the wall, and Galo mirrored the movement so that their palms were only separated by a thin layer of glass.

“Galo… I’m sorry,” Lio said, “l know you’re upset, but think about all this for a second. First of all, I wouldn’t have done this if it hadn’t looked really bad. And second, I… no matter what happens, I already got two years of somewhat normal life. Well, one and a half if you don’t count the time I was in jail. Anyway, all that time not having to wonder every night if I’ll wake up in the morning. Two years of a… a shelter, and coffee and a bed and later even a job… that’s two years more than I imagined I’d get.”

Galo sniffled quietly.

“It’s not fair,” he said in a voice that was so strained it might break soon, “No one should have to live thinking they can’t even have two years of normal life.”

“No, it’s not fair,” Lio admitted, “But it happens all the time, for so many reasons. My point is… let’s have some perspective here.”

“I don’t care about perspective! I care about _you_! You know how happy I am to go to work, right? Because I love my job so much and all that?”

“Yes?”

“Lately, I’ve been super happy to go home too,” Galo said, so quietly it was almost a whisper, “Because you’re there.”

This was the kind of stuff they didn’t talk about often. Because they both _knew_. But sometimes… maybe it needed to be said even when they did know. But _why_ was Galo always picking the worst times to say the sappiest shit? Lio _wasn’t_ going to cry now, damn it (he’d probably just be crying fire anyway)! It was _definitely_ time to switch tactics when it came to cheering Galo up. Lio slapped the glass lightly with his palm and recalled another time when Galo had been very upset. When Lio had actually known what he had to do to make things better.

Good times.

“Galo Thymos,” Lio said, “Where’s that firefighting spirit you’re always on about? I really didn’t think you’d be giving up so easily.”

“Who says I’m giving up?” Galo snapped, suddenly almost angry, “I’m _never_ giving up! Giving up isn’t even in my vocabulary!”

“Then why are you moping about me possibly dying when I’m not dying _yet_ , and we can still figure this out?”

Galo gave him a watery smile.

“I’m not moping! I’m just angry that _you_ gave up too fast and didn’t have enough faith in me back in the fire!”

“We were both literally minutes away from death!”

“Minutes is a long time!” Galo proclaimed, but his voice did break a bit when he said it, “Well, I guess the damage’s been done now, but don’t worry! I’ll just save you and everyone from these flames!”

Lio smiled. _That_ was the Galo he knew. Seeing him almost smile made it at least a little easier to not think about how wrong everything else was right now.

“Don’t think I’m letting you do any of this without me.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Galo said, “We’ll make it to the end, and then some. You promised, didn’t you?”

Lio pressed his hand even harder against the glass.

“Just you wait, I’m going to show you those stars on the desert, Galo Thymos.”

“You better,” Galo said. He still had tears in his eyes, but at least his smile wasn’t so broken anymore, “Hey… do you feel like you won’t accidentally burn stuff anymore? Because I think we both need a hug right now.”

“I… think I’m still a bit volatile,” Lio said, “Sorry.”

“Can you change the flames into the protective ones?”

“That’s even harder than not burning at all. But hopefully soon.”

“Okay. That’s fine.”

Galo leaned down to press his forehead into the glass, and Lio stood up on tiptoes so he could do the same and imagine they were actually touching.

Sometimes, in the midst of unfortunate occurrences and confused feelings, a sliver of a perfect moment slipped in. For that sliver of a moment, Lio managed to quiet the Promare down enough to actually enjoy it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might have to do a fourth (or fifth? I don't even know anymore) editing round later, but at the moment I'm like no, take this away from me! Also no amount of editing will make me feel anything but insecure about this chapter, even though it has a few things I've really been looking forward to writing.


	9. Kindling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> People dance in fire. More insight into the mysterious facility is revealed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Headcanons about how the Promare work and about the Burnish healing factor ahead! Among other stuff. I always try my best to base all of these on the limited information we got in canon.
> 
> Also these wordcounts kinda sneak up on me. I was like "oh, this is a pretty short chapter" and then saw it was over 8000 words. Wut???

_When Lio Fotia had first burst into flames and his parents had coldly informed him that he had no business ever coming back home, a little piece of something had quietly died inside him, almost unnoticed, buried under the initial shock and rage. It had kept dying more, little by little, as the years had gone by and the world hadn’t stopped being cruel. Lio hadn’t had time to dwell on it. He had filled the empty spot inside him with righteous fury, let it burn him like the flames burned his body. It had felt comfortable enough. He acknowledged that it was probably not healthy to just let something that was at least closely related to love and happiness just go numb and be eaten up by anger. But for the longest time, it had kept him alive, driven him forward, so he accepted it. He wasn’t living for himself anyway._

_Now, in a city that was trying to tentatively accept him and his brethren, the hollowness had become much more noticeable. A black hole in the centre of a tiny Lio-galaxy that kept trying to draw in all the other feelings around it and crush them into something unrecognisable._

_It was probably trauma, shock, and partially the simple fact that Lio hadn’t had much time to develop his emotional intelligence in a safe, nurturing environment. It had left him a raging fire he had trapped under ice, letting it loose only when needed or when things got too overwhelming. Back then, it had been easier to just burn the anger away. Now, there was nothing to burn it with._

_“Lio!” Galo Thymos thundered into his apartment and kicked off his work boots, “Get up! We’re going out!”_

_“Where?” Lio asked from the corner of a couch where he had been having a staring contest with a particularly annoying piece of paperwork._

_“It’s a surprise! Come on! Get your helmet!”_

_Apparently you needed a license to drive a motorcycle. Lio had vaguely known about that, but that didn’t make it any less disappointing to come face to face with it. Galo had seen Lio’s disappointment and bought him a helmet that was menacing enough to remind Lio of his old Burnish armour. The gesture had been sickeningly sweet and far too much, especially since Galo had also declared that until Lio could get his license, Galo would drive him anywhere he needed._

_And he had. Lio had tried not to need it too much, because Galo was already doing so much for him and everyone else, and Lio didn’t want to be any more of a burden than he already was. After he had caved in and moved in with Galo –_ mostly _only because it had meant freeing up a spot in the Burnish shelter he had spent time in – his life had been full of luxuries he had never dreamed of or ones he could barely remember from his past, and he was feeling guilty about most of it. Luxuries like a space of his own, fresh food, and hot showers. And Galo, who tried so hard to be the best possible host even with workdays that could go all the way up to twelve hours and sometimes more, and the fact that living with Lio made Galo also a target of the kind of hate he wouldn’t otherwise get. Galo accepted it all with a smile, even when he shouldn’t._

 _This seemed to be one of the days when even_ that _wasn’t enough for Galo, and he also insisted on getting Lio out of the house to do something fun. Something to forget about all the sucky stuff, as Galo had put it. And sure, Lio definitely_ wanted _to get out of the house, and his therapist had told him that he_ should _do more things just for himself, but it still felt so… difficult. Now, it wasn’t just Galo driving him somewhere he absolutely needed to go, but somewhere – Lio still wasn’t sure where – they could waste time in. Just so Lio wouldn’t feel so much like scratching the walls after staying inside for so long and trying to make sense of frustrating bureaucracy that he was helping the Burnish council tackle for the rehoming efforts. He felt like shouldn’t go, and yet for some reason, he did._

_Galo had a nice, red motorcycle, and he was a good enough driver that Lio didn’t mind sitting behind him even when he’d much rather be speeding along the roads on his own. They drove past street corners and the occasional slur thrown their way, and for a moment nothing really mattered. Then Galo parked in front of what looked like a very big old warehouse, which had been converted into a…_

_Lio just stood and stared for a while after Galo pushed the door open and spread his arms as if revealing something miraculous._

_“An archery range?” Lio said, “I didn’t know Promepolis had one.”_

_“Promepolis has everything!” Galo said, “Come on, let’s rent some bows and see if you can still hit a target without fire arrows!”_

_Lio had never loved any single person. Oh, he had definitely loved, very passionately, in fact. But his love wasn’t the kind meant to be reciprocated nor for forming relationships. It was a general kind of love for ideas, and for giving to others. He would gladly die for the Burnish any time, and he did his best to know they were loved and cared for. He had never expected any of it back. He had meandered from place to place, helping where he could. There had been fleeting acquaintances, blood-fire oaths, and occasional friendships around a pink campfire. The only thing he had asked for in return from the other Burnish had been trust, because without it they had nothing to keep them together. And from the others, he had always asked only to be treated like a human – a bare minimum that until now had been painfully difficult to get._

_So now, looking at Galo Thymos, Lio found himself at a loss._

_Galo was an easy person to love, to be honest. Underneath the loudness and the nonsense he spouted, he was so genuine and so_ good. _And yes, maybe the loudness and the nonsense were endearing too, in their own ways. He cared so much, went out of his way to help Lio and do this kind of completely frivolous shit for him, that it was impossible not to let the ice walls around him melt a little._

_Was this what being mutually cared for was like?_

_Maybe?_

_Not knowing what else to do, Lio smiled and said:_

_“Thank you. For this.”_

_while meaning it as a thank you for everything. He followed Galo first to pay, then to pick out a bow and arrows. It didn’t feel quite the same as the bow he used to make out of fire. It was balanced differently and a bit heavier, and it took some tries to adjust to that. But it wasn’t an embarrassingly long time before he was getting the feel of it and hitting targets just like he used to. Galo was mostly focused on cheering him on, and_ that _might have been embarrassing if Galo hadn’t been so earnest about it. In fact, it felt surprisingly nice. It felt…_

_Was this what loving a person and being loved in return was like?_

_Maybe. Whatever it was, it had settled comfortably in the hollow part in his soul and filled it with something less destructive than anger._

* * *

Aina Ardebit stood face-to-face with blue-white hospital doors, not quite sure how to act in present company. Lio’s… friends? lieutenants or something? gang buddies? were standing on either side of her like some sort of pseudo-bodyguards, probably out of habit after walking like that all the time with another person roughly Aina’s size. They had got word that Alixia Karis was finally well enough to accept visitors, and Burning Rescue was more than ready to ask her a few questions about what had happened under the streets of Promepolis three days ago. When Aina had been dispatched to go talk to her, Meis and Gueira – who had sort of been crashing in the Burning Rescue HQ after their boss had disappeared – had insisted on coming with her. She supposed she couldn’t stop them, but she _was_ more than ready to drag them out of Alixia’s room by the ears if they got too difficult or aggressive with her. They really didn’t take kindly to their boss disappearing, and right now, Alixia and the unknown, battered mercenary-looking types were their only leads to that.

“Remember,” Aina said, “We’re here to actually _get_ information and to make sure she’s alright, not to accuse anyone. We don’t know what happened yet.”

“We know that bitch attacked the Boss and the idiot,” Gueira said, casting a very volatile look at her. Aina, who was used to all kinds of bullshit from a) being a young woman in a traditionally non-feminine job and b) wrangling the group of idiots she called her co-workers, met his eyes coldly.

“Even if she did, we need her to cooperate with us. Trust me, being nice is a good way to start.”

They walked in, got permission to go to Alixia’s room, and were soon faced with a woman Aina had only seen in pictures and in a much more glamorous light. Her hair was down, and her face was bruised so badly she could barely open her left eye. Her left arm was in a cast, but there was still some sort of strength about her. Like she could at any moment somehow summon back her old healing powers and jump up without even a scratch remaining. She didn’t do that, though. Instead, she smiled. It was a good smile, practised, but also genuine enough to make people at ease. Aina responded to it with a smile of her own.

“Hi,” she said, “I’m Aina Ardebit from Burning Rescue. We saved you from under a collapsed street, and we’d like to know what happened so we can prevent future accidents like that.”

Alixia nodded slowly.

“I see…” she said, “I already talked with the police, but I suppose you have your own thing going on. I was… there was a fire.”

“Yes, we saw the scorch marks.”

“It caved in the street, and I only barely got far enough to… not die I guess.”

“How did you end up under the street?” Aina asked, painfully aware that behind her, at least one human-shaped firecracker was about to go off. Gueira had clenched his hands into fists and was giving Alixia a _very_ dangerous look. Meis had put his hand on Gueira’s shoulder, but he didn’t seem too motivated to actually hold him back if he did decide to spring.

“I was being stupid,” Alixia said and laughed airily, “I wanted to explore a bit. You know those tunnels are a home for some Burnish? I thought-“

“Bullshit!” Gueira snapped, “You hurt our Boss and you went there because of some secret Promare shit that has to do with the missing Burnish!”

Alixia blinked, as if only now noticing that Aina wasn’t alone.

“Who are you two?” she asked.

“We’re Mad Burnish,” Meis said, “You heard of us, lady? You should, with the way you’ve been creeping on our boss.”

“Oh,” Alixia said, “I see. So this _wasn’t_ just an innocent civil servant visit. Are you a part of them too, Ms. Ardebit?”

“No,” Aina said, “I really am from Burning Rescue. They just tagged along. And yeah, we _do_ know a lot about what’s been happening with the missing people. We know whatever you were doing under that street had to do with them. And some more people disappeared after that ‘accident’ you were in. So even if you didn’t have anything to do with it, you might want to start telling the truth or you’re going to be in trouble.”

She was still speaking calmly, but in the same way the eye of a storm was calm. Alixia closed her eyes, winced in pain, and then let out a very tired sigh.

“Very well,” she said, “I’ll tell you what’s going on.”

* * *

Galo sat on the floor next to the observation room, trying his best to stay awake and occasionally stare a bit indignantly at the camera in the corner. Lio had fallen asleep, slumped where he had settled to sit with his back against the glass. It was a bit of a heart-breaking sight, especially since there was a perfectly good bed only a few steps away. At some point Lio had just seemed to crash, and Galo wasn’t sure if it was safe to carry him to the bed. Lio would probably have the same kind of freakout he usually had when someone disturbed his sleep, and right now it might lead to things burning. And if Galo got hurt in the process, Lio would feel even worse than he already did, so Galo didn’t dare take that risk, no matter how much he wanted to just hold Lio and help him.

Galo hated how little he could do right now. And that was kind of significant, because Galo rarely hated anything. He could be angry, sure. In fact, his fuse was about as short as it could get. He did think that a lot of stuff was wrong and people weren’t always doing good things, and no, he didn’t like that. But hate felt like a bit too much. Like it wasted time he could use to make things better.

But this situation? Knowing people here were probably slowly dying because of a thing that was apparently also one of the few things that brought them comfort and happiness? Yeah, it sucked, big time. And what sucked even more was that Lio was now also living on borrowed time. That wasn’t something Galo wanted to think about at all, even though he and Lio had agreed that nothing was really lost yet and that they would save everyone here. And yeah, they totally would! Somehow. He didn’t yet know how, but there had to be a way, right? There was always a way.

Now, Galo wasn’t _a complete_ idiot. He tended to make things simpler than they were because then they were easier to process, and he often thought things would work out if he just pushed through and believed enough. But he also knew that it didn’t always work like that. He knew that sometimes, bad things did happen. His parents had died in a fire, and he still hadn’t fully recovered from that – and probably never would. People had been treated badly. This planet had been dying – and probably still was in some ways. No amount of just pushing and believing would make those things okay. But that wouldn’t stop him from trying, because at least then he had tried his best to do something about it.

So this was what he started to think to get rid of the darkest of thoughts: If minutes was a long time, months was practically an eternity! They had plenty of time to find a solution. And maybe this wasn’t even that difficult. It could be just a communications issue again. The reason they had been able to send the Promare back into their dimension and stop the world from exploding had been because Lio had finally managed to listen to them properly. Maybe he could do it again – definitely with way less almost-dying – and maybe Galo could again lend a hand and they could punch things back on track. Day saved again, this time in a smaller but no less meaningful scale. And then they would go home and eat pizza with Burning Rescue and then ride off into the sunset to watch the stars. Yeah, that sounded about right. He’d ask Lio about the communications-thing as soon as he woke up.

It would be alright. It had to be, because the alternative felt too painful.

He clung to the optimism and finally fell asleep as well. He didn’t know for how long, but when he did wake up, he felt surprisingly refreshed – if a bit sore after sitting on the floor for so long – and the quiet of the room was broken by the swooshing and sparking of fire.

Lio was awake and looking considerably less anguished.

He had recreated his Burnish armour, spikes and horns and all, and the contrast between the gleaming black armour and the white room was almost as sharp as the neon-coloured sword Lio had summoned into his hand. Galo watched, mesmerised and slightly nostalgic, as Lio slashed a pattern into the air and danced between flames that now burned in the room. He swung, shot fire, changed the sword into a bow and fired arrows at the wall, let them shift back into flames only a split-second before they made contact. It was scary-pretty, and Galo was glad to see Lio moving so easily, like the obvious pain he’d been in yesterday (or earlier today?) had never been there.

“Feeling better?” he asked. Lio stopped, standing in a mostly relaxed position, ready to move into any direction. He turned to look at Galo, the faceless, sharp-toothed grin on his helmet almost eerie. Then it melted away, as did the rest of the armour, and Lio dropped on his feet with the sudden loss of elevation from his spiky boots. He was smiling.

“Much,” he said, “The Promare are settling down nicely. They’re still loud, but that’s… well, I can manage.”

He closed his eyes contentedly.

“I missed them,” he said, “And if I can make them calm down, I can maybe listen to them better.”

“Yeah, I was thinking about that too,” Galo said, “Maybe they can tell us how to fix the… the thing.”

Lio opened his mouth, but decided not to say anything when the door behind Galo opened and Eon walked in.

“Good morning!” Eon said, “Or well, evening. You were really exhausted, I guess. You slept for nearly twenty-four hours! But I saw on the cameras that you’ve been in action here now. Feeling good?”

“Yes,” Lio said, now much more wary than when talking to Galo.

“Nice!” Eon said, “How do the Promare feel?”

Lio shrugged his shoulders.

“Loud, but better. Although it feels like there’s less energy to use than last time.”

“Ah, yeah, makes sense,” Eon said, “The Promare here lost their connection to their star when the rift closed, so the majority of their energy was cut off. Well, mostly. Fenn has told me that they still have a kind of connection to the star, because… well, some weird quantum shit I can’t make heads or tails about. Something about their light slipping through? Anyway, it’s weird, but the point is, it makes sense they’re not as strong as they could be. Fenn thinks that’s also partially responsible for the… deaths. They burn the Burnish body out much quicker because they struggle to make more energy than they need. That’s probably why their whispers are apparently so frantic too.”

Lio frowned.

“To me, it sounds more like they just want to go back home. They’re lost… and sort of lonely, maybe?”

“Could be that too,” Eon shrugged, “Or more like they’re a hive mind and don’t know how to function properly too far away from the bigger mass. Makes them less intelligent and very confused. That’s what Fenn says too. We’re trying to test all sorts of theories. But let’s worry about that later. If you’re feeling better, then maybe you finally want to eat something. You missed dinner yesterday, but how about now? It’s mostly canned beans, but it’s pretty good, all things considered. We can properly chat with the people here, like I promised, _and_ we’ll all have a flame dance afterwards.”

“We’ll be right there,” Lio said, “Let me just… clean up here first.”

He waved a hand towards the spiky structures of crystallised fire all over his room, and Eon laughed.

“Sure! Good job with those, by the way! Very good control! I’ll be waiting for you guys at the dining area, deal?”

He left, and Galo watched with some level of enchanted glee how the fire crystals just _melted_ back into flames and leaped at Lio’s hands. They curled into a ball and hovered there until they disappeared. Lio walked over to the small control panel where the door separating him from Galo opened. As soon as Lio stepped out, Galo rushed to crush him into a hug.

“Wh- Galo!” Lio protested, but obviously didn’t really mean it, especially considering how tightly he clenched his hands into Galo’s shirt.

“It’s the hug we both needed yesterday, obviously!” Galo said, “By the way, you kinda smell like burnt plastic.”

“Aaannnd the moment is ruined,” Lio chuckled into Galo’s shoulder and stepped back from Galo’s arms, “The smell is probably from me melting a synthetic suit off my body back in Promepolis. Do they have showers here?”

“Yep!” Galo said, “I took a shower when they brought us here. I can show you where they are.”

He lowered his voice into a whisper.

“It was a part of my escape plan.”

“You had a plan?”

“Sure did! I was waiting for the chance to grab you and sneak us out of here, and then come back with Burning Rescue to save the others. The shower-thing was an excuse to look around the place a bit. Find escape routes and stuff.”

“Did you find any?”

“Nah. A guard caught me. But I’m sure we can find a way later. If we want to, that is. Do we? I mean, some of the people kinda seem like they just want to hide here, and they’re scared we’ll give them away. But… this all is weird. And difficult.”

“I know,” Lio said, “Let’s look around even more first, see what the Burnish here really think, keep our options open. Let them think we’re at least somewhat on board. But eventually? We might have to break out of they’re really insistent on keeping us here.”

“Yeah,” Galo said, “But we _will_ get out. Don’t worry. If nothing else, we’ll just dig our way right through that ceiling!”

“Idiot,” Lio said very fondly.

“The idiot who’s probably-definitely going to save the day at some point again, though, so show some respect!”

Lio punched his shoulder as one more gesture of affection.

* * *

After taking a shower and smelling less like plastic, as well as having a half a can of beans and tomato sauce in his hand, Lio started to feel more like a human again. The Promare were still whispering, but they always did that, and at least now it was easier to push them into the background again. He would take his time to listen to them soon, but for now, he needed to get his physical strength back up so that he could properly focus and keep feeding the flames for long enough until they could tell him how to fix this. To fix _them_ , because Lio had a feeling that at the moment, the Promare were the ones who were the most hurt, at least on a physical level.

As soon as they had got into the large room that served as both a dining area and a sort of sitting room, Eon had joined them. He sat down with them and chatted about nonsense while they ate. Lio looked around the room and saw about thirty people there, all mostly eating. Probably all of the Burnish in the facility were there, aside from Phedra, who was apparently still recovering and mostly sleeping. Lio spotted Carlya talking with her friend in a corner again. She looked quite cheerful. Most of the Burnish looked pretty cheery, actually, and many of them were talking about the upcoming dance. Some flitted between this room and the next large, open space where they were probably setting up a place for dancing. Lio remembered a few flame dances from the times on the run. There had been rare moments when they’d had proper shelter and had dared to let loose and light big fires together. Those had always been good times.

“So…” he said, turning to Eon, “now that Meers isn’t here, what’s your actual opinion on this place?”

“It’s complicated,” Eon said, “Fenn and I became friends at the safehouse, before he told me he was a former Foresight employee. He had this… hollow look about him. Like he really regretted everything. So for what it’s worth, I _do_ think he’s genuinely trying to do the right thing. And, well, the flames were here, so why _shouldn’t_ we go back to them? Why should we just accept that they’re gone when they aren’t? Yes, we could be dangerous sometimes, but did that mean we deserved what we got?”

It was Galo who immediately responded:

“No.”

Eon smiled.

“I see you’ve picked your friends well, Lio.”

“I didn’t pick him,” Lio said, “He tackled me and had me thrown into a lake.”

Eon guffawed and actually clapped Lio in the back hard enough for Lio to tense and automatically ready for an attack. His flames awoke from their quiet smoulder, but Lio forced them down.

“I like you, kid!” Eon said, “I like both of you, in fact!”

He seemed so sober up and become serious again. He sighed and looked at empty air with the kind of wistfulness no one under fifty should be able to have.

“No, we didn’t deserve any of it. We deserved a safe place to awaken and to learn to control our fire. We deserved a place in the society. And now that we know our fire is actually another sentient lifeform, why not think of them too? If these ones are still here, abandoned, crying out, and we’re the only ones who hear them, why shouldn’t we answer? We can make something good out of this. We can make the people see… with more time, I…”

He sighed.

“Yes, the deaths were an unexpected roadblock, and I really hope we can stop them. But even if we can’t, most of us here are ready to accept whatever comes. Do you know why? Because we didn’t have anything back home. Us in safehouse fourteen, we were still there because we didn’t know how to get our lives back. The flames gave us a purpose again. And many of the ones in Promepolis? Same thing. They’re _happy_ here.”

“I…” Lio wasn’t sure what to say. The words got caught in his throat and he thought about all the things he hadn’t known, the people who had been sad and suffering while he had done nothing because he had thought they were at least recovering, “I… understand. Kind of. But I still don’t think this was the way.”

“Was sealing the Promare back into their dimension and leaving us in the dust the way either?” Eon asked, “In that moment, it had to be done. And maybe we thought that this had to be done too. Is this the best solution? No, maybe not. But it was all we got.”

“Not doing this wouldn’t have destroyed the world,” Galo pointed out.

“Okay, yeah,” Eon admitted, “It probably wouldn’t. But _doing_ this fixed a lot of lives. Or at least started fixing them.”

“Even with the ones you actually kidnapped?” Lio said, “Or the ones left behind, wondering where their loved ones are?”

“So what do you think would have happened if we had just waltzed into Promepolis and asked the Burnish council or whatever it is you have to gather some volunteers?” Eon asked.

“They… probably wouldn’t have trusted you,” Lio said, “At least not enough to risk our people going through experimentation again.”

“Exactly!” Eon said, “But we _needed_ more people to help the ones here! So yeah, maybe we were overly secretive, but this was for the best!”

It was a wonder just how much the human mind could rationalise, how much it could ignore when a person’s deeds clashed with their morals. But in this case, Eon was probably at least right about one thing: that there _weren’t_ good solutions. Well, except maybe not trying at all, or at the very least not keeping this a secret while trying to do this shoddily with a small group of people with very little actual plan. But really, what were the odds of those happening after everything they had endured?

“I guess this is just one more proof that we’re just like everyone else,” Lio said, “That we’re just as capable of making bad decisions. Or at least not knowing what the right ones are.”

“Yeah,” Eon laughed unhappily, “Maybe.”

They sat in awkward silence for a few moments. Then Galo stood and slammed his can of beans down to the chair he had just got up from.

“So,” he said, “We’ve got a problem here, right? We’ve got to stop these people from dying, and then figure out everything else!”

“I mean, yeah,” Eon said, “Right now, that’s a priority.”

“Great! So then I’m in! I rescue people, these people need rescuing. If they can’t leave until we’ve figured out how to do it safely, then we do that, right? Easy!”

Lio couldn’t help a little smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“As much as I hate so many things about this, I agree,” he said, “If there’s anything we can do, we will.”

“Great!” Eon said, “I was hoping you’d say that. Any help is appreciated. Well, aside from the outside kind at the moment, no matter what some think. We know it slows things down, but right now pretty much the only people who know enough about the Promare are some former Foresight Foundation researchers. And honestly, Fenn was kind of a jackpot in that he was both just that _and_ genuinely sorry, but how many other Foresight goons could we trust?”

“I don’t think they’re the only ones at this point,” Lio said, “Aren’t Dr. Prometh’s notes public information now?”

“Well, yeah, but how much is that going to help now? There’s nothing to physically research, aside from us. And how many would just panic if they saw us? Or wanted to exploit this even harder? Face it, kid, we’re on our own here.”

“If you say so,” Lio said, not sounding very convinced even in his own ears. He decided to drop the subject for the moment and looked around the room again instead. He saw Dalia sitting near the walls again, eyes downcast. He wondered if he should go talk to her. But what should he say? Just keep repeating his condolences about Alec? Lio didn’t know Dalia well enough to assume she’d want to talk to him about it more. He decided to leave her be for the moment and moved on to Jace. He was a gangly young man, who had his mother’s bright red hair and light green eyes. He was talking with a very tall man who had a beard reminiscent of old warriors who swung axes, and a muscular body covered in scars.

Eon followed his gaze and also locked onto Jace. He stood up.

“Hey, come on, I can see you want to talk to Jace. I don’t think you had a chance to do that much yesterday.”

Galo and Lio also stood and followed Eon to the other end of the room. Jace looked up at them and his eyes darkened a little.

“Hey, Jacey” Eon said, “I’m still showing our new arrivals around. They want a chat with you too.”

“It’s Jace,” Jace muttered before turning to look at Lio in a somewhat hostile manner, “Well, what do you want to say?”

“Hi!” Galo waved his hand enthusiastically, “I’m Galo Thymos! Are you Jace? And who’s your friend?”

Jace’s scarred friend chuckled. His voice sounded like it had been dragged through a grinding machine.

“We know who you are, Rooster Boy,” the man said, “Everyone knows who you and little Lio are.”

He offered a hand. He had scars criss-crossing all the way from shoulder to palm. Galo shook it, but the man apparently initiated a brief strength match of who could attempt to mangle the other’s hand better with just an overly firm grip. A very pointless attempt to assert dominance.

“The name’s Algos,” the man said, finally releasing Galo’s hand when it became apparent that neither refused to flinch, “Used to run in a few gangs before I settled down in the same safehouse as Old Eon.”

Lio and Algos put their hands close together, not touching but letting a tiny spark flare between them.

“So,” Lio said, “you’re friends with Jace?”

“Yeah,” Jace said defiantly, “He’s a great guy, been my friend ever since I ended up here. He’s been training me to use my fire again. I’m stronger than ever.”

“How _did_ you end up here, Jace?”

“Eon visited us, and afterwards I sneaked after him,” Jace said, “He was going somewhere, and I wanted to see what was up. By the time he noticed me, I knew so much that I couldn't go back. And by couldn't I mean didn't want to. This place is great.”

Well, that matched Eon’s story at least.

“Did you know your mother misses you a lot?” Lio asked.

Jace’s expression darkened even further. He crossed his arms.

“She’ll understand. Once I come back and show everyone how the Burnish should’ve been treated from the start, everything’ll be okay. Now are you _done_?”

“Are you angry with me?” Lio asked.

“Uh, yeah. Have been for a long time.”

“Oh. Can I ask why?”

Sparks sneaked into Jace’s hair, made it turn into flames that curled up towards the ceiling.

“You took our fire away! And then you keep talking about shit like how it wasn’t our fire and how we should just move on! _Why_ the hell should we do that when we never did anything wrong?”

“I…” Lio sighed, “Right. You’re not the only one angry about that. I’m sorry, but that was the only thing that we could do at that point.”

“Do you realise how much we’ve had to suffer?!” Jace snapped, “How we didn’t have anything except the flames? And then we were just stripped of that too and we’re supposed to roll over and be part of society again? With people who only think we’re okay because we’re no longer us?!”

“I know, Jace,” Lio said flatly, “I was there, and I can’t forgive a lot of it either.”

“Don’t patronise me, Fotia!” Jace said, “You’re only, what? Two-three years older than me? You think you know so much better and can make decisions for all of us?”

“Okay, back off!” Galo said, “We just did what we could to save the world back then!”

“Nobody asked you, firefighter!” Jace yelled, spitting the last word out like a slur.

“Gentlemen,” boomed Algos, stepping in front of Jace, “First of all, _you_ back off, Rooster. You’re newcomers and we don’t need anyone stirring that kind of trouble here. I don’t care how famous you are. If Jace doesn’t like you, then he doesn’t.”

He glanced at Jace.

“And you, there’s no need to take your anger out on them. In the end, they’re not the real enemy.”

Jace clenched his hands into fists, but then he closed his eyes in some kind of defeat, and the flames in his hair went out.

“Yeah… right. Sorry.”

He glanced at Eon.

“Well, we talked. Can you go now?”

Eon sighed.

“I think I need to stay here for a while.”

He waved his hand at Galo and Lio.

“Sorry about this. I’ll talk to my nephew about a few things. Just go mingle on your own.”

Lio was more than happy to get out of _that_ particular conversation, even though he also didn’t really want to just leave things like that between him and Jace. Yes, Jace was just a casual acquaintance, but the thought of him being so angry and sad was still upsetting. Not because Lio couldn’t handle a little hate, but because it probably wasn’t great for Jace. But he still walked away, settled into a corner until he saw Carlya stand up from her seat. He waved her over.

“I saw you getting into a fight with Jace and Algos,” she said as soon as she sat down next to them, “Or well… I guess you wouldn’t call that a fight. How are you?”

“I’m fine,” Lio said, “And you? You were pretty upset yesterday.”

“Oh, yeah,” Carlya said, “I did some thinking, and I’m better again. It’s just… a shock to know someone missed me, you know?”

“It shouldn’t be a shock,” Galo said, “I mean, it can be, but that’s not right.”

“Lots of things aren’t right,” Carlya shrugged.

“I keep hearing that,” Galo muttered. Carlya chuckled.

“Yeah, it sucks, doesn’t it?”

“Did you talk to anyone back in Promepolis?” Lio asked, “About how you felt?”

“Not really…” Carlya said, shifting uncomfortably, “I mean, I went to therapy a few times, and then I stopped. It… maybe wasn’t the best idea. My therapist was cool and did make me feel a bit better. But I felt like she didn’t really get it. She’s Burnish too, but she managed to kind of have a life before and after the fire, you know? So… I felt lonely, and I really missed the flames. My friends were trying to move on, busy rebuilding their own lives and all. As they should, but I… well, I just didn’t seem to know how.”

“I’m sorry,” Lio said.

“It’s not your fault.”

“But I was supposed to help.”

“So you’re responsible for all of us now?” Carlya said, “Why? Because you decided that? Because you saved the world and that happened to send the fire away?”

“I…”

“I mean, I get it,” Carlya said, “You’ve been working really hard to help us, and I admire that a lot. And trust me, you’ve already done _a lot_. But like I said, one person can’t know everything. And you’re not the only one working on this, right?”

“No, but-“

“Okay, look,” Carlya said in a very tired voice, “You’re smart, but right now you’re being an idiot. It. Wasn’t. Your. Fault. I ended up here because I felt like I had screwed up my second chance at life and wanted myself back. Besides, I’m kind of happy here.”

“Really?”

“Well, I mean, it could be way worse,” Carlya said, “I was pissed that they’d sort of tricked me and that I couldn’t leave, but… it’s more like we’re hiding as opposed to being kidnapped. Well, maybe some of us feel more kidnapped than others.”

Carlya pointed at a spot where a few people were standing around and conversing in a dense circle. Lio could recognise Kieran Alannis from Promepolis, but the others were unknown to him.

“Those are the ones who think this is bullshit and want to leave, but they’re more talk than action. Well, Phedra and Terri weren’t, but I think Terri’s death deterred those people even further.”

She pointed at Jace and Algos and some of their friends.

“That group is more on the aggressive side. They don’t really like Meers or this place, but they’re happy about the flames and keep talking about how we should hurry up and go back, show the others what we’re all about already. Algos used to be in some of the more aggressive gangs, so I think his idea of ‘showing’ would be kinda violent. See the scars?”

It was hard not to, considering they were everywhere. Lio and Galo nodded. Carlya leaned a bit closer to them like she was about to tell a secret.

“From what he says, they’re from fights. He used to be one of those Burnish who really leaned into the whole regeneration-thing, made it a part of his style.”

“Wait, how?” Galo asked.

“By letting people get in some hits to lure them into a vulnerable position and a false sense of security,” Lio said, “I’ve seen it done a couple of times. A Burnish can even let themselves be impaled or dismembered without it being fatal, so it can work out as long as your pain tolerance is high. It’s gruesome, though, and can take some years off a Burnish’s lifespan if done a lot.”

He studied Algos with a critical eye.

“Did he leave the scars deliberately to make an impression?”

“I think so,” Carlya said, “Must’ve been a chore, burning to heal only like ninety percent of the way. You’d have to consciously hold the Promare back for that.”

“Yeah.”

“So yeah, he’s kinda violent and proud of that,” Carlya shrugged, “Well, he’s not violent _here_. He’s like the kind of big brother who’d completely destroy anyone who’d try to bully his younger siblings. And his younger siblings are everyone here.”

She spread her arms.

“Anyway, the majority of us here, we’re just making do with what we have. Some like to think we’re just using Meers by letting him use us. You know, he’s technically experimenting on us, but he’s also giving us a place and something we really needed. Some are just so focused on having the fire back that they don’t care about much else. And then there’s people like me, who didn’t even awaken, but stay because we don’t have a choice but also because we feel good about it. We’re building a life here, and no one’s throwing stuff at us and we’re surviving and making new friends. It’s hard to hate this despite the… you know.”

“Even if the people who have the Promare again are dying?” Galo asked.

“Okay, so that’s the only really bad part,” Carlya said, “If it’s even true. I mean, it’s only two – no wait, three if you count Terri – people so far, and those could’ve been just really bad cases. And anyway, Meers and Eon and some other people are working on it, so it’s going to be fine.”

She straightened her posture, put on a stony expression.

“That’s what the majority here thinks anyway.”

Someone shouted at the doorway that led to the next room. Carlya grinned, as if all her regrets and worries had suddenly been washed away.

“Come on! The dance is starting!”

* * *

The Burnish had always had the urge to burn. It wasn’t that they wanted to destroy, necessarily, but just to let the flames inside them do what they were meant to do. Sometimes not burning could even hurt, cause withdrawal, all the while the whispers got louder. It was a nearly mystical call the Burnish had deemed their destiny. Later they had been told that it was actually far less spiritual, but rather just the Promare, who wished to fulfil their function by going through their combustion cycle, but could not do it with just a few uncontrolled fires.

Most of them had known that just burning things wouldn’t do anyone any good – though some still committed arson just to make a usually misinterpreted point. They knew that they needed to be careful, but they also knew that the compulsion couldn’t be fought forever without it causing suffering to both the Burnish and the flames. The Burnish flame dance had been born from a desire to do it safely. If they gathered together in a safe place, they could burn together until the fire was satisfied for the moment, and nobody would be hurt. And they could have fun, play music, and be beautiful together while they were at it.

That night, in a large open room with tungsten walls and a few observation windows the non-fireproof ones could safely stay behind and watch, music was played, and a flame dance started. They danced around a large bonfire in the middle of the room, but the flames weren’t restricted to that. They were weaved out of the bonfire, moulded into shapes that hovered above them. Some stepped in the middle of the fire and spun, bodies becoming one with it, muscles moving like the flames they were now surrounded with. People were laughing, and there was hardly anyone who didn’t smile. Except maybe the group who didn’t want to be there, who had backed away into another room and out of sight entirely.

Galo Thymos had seen many fires, and he had always had a respect for it. A fighter without a healthy appreciation for their opponent was either going to lose a lot or be an unsportsmanlike winner. And Galo knew how much fire could destroy and how much it could help. It was warm and full of energy, but it was also deadly and harsh. He hated how it killed and destroyed, but he couldn’t deny that it could also be beautiful.

This dance was still something else. It was a bit freaky to see people just walking into fire without a plan to put it out, and he had to keep reminding himself that it was safe. But it was also awesome, how they could just _be_ fire, how they could bend it. He had seen it before, of course, but not really much outside of fights. He found himself staring with his mouth open, occasionally leaning a bit too close to the glass and feeling the heat in the room even through the fireproof surface.

“They look happy,” said Lio, who was standing next to Galo, his arms crossed and a slightly uncomfortable look on his face, like a textbook wallflower, “The Promare sound more at peace too.”

“Right,” Galo managed to say, “It’s… wow. If it wasn’t a total fire hazard, I’d say it’s the prettiest thing ever.”

He looked at Lio and smiled.

“Well, at least almost. There’s-”

His smile faltered when he saw the look on Lio’s face.

“What’s wrong?”

Lio lowered his head.

“All this time… I thought I had an idea of how the Burnish in Promepolis were doing. I knew many of them were experiencing hardships, and I tried my best to make things easier, but I thought… I thought they’d at least talk to people. I thought…”

He sighed.

“I should have guessed that it was worse than I imagined with a lot of them. Why was I being so… optimistic all of a sudden?”

He narrowed his eyes and looked back up at Galo.

“That part’s probably your fault,” he said, “You keep giving me _hope_.”

“As I should!” Galo said, “And you can’t blame yourself about _every_ bad thing that happens to people! You’re doing your best to help everyone!”

“So when everything falls apart, I’ll at least get a medal saying ‘good effort’?” Lio asked flatly, “Great.”

“Weren’t you the one who told _me_ not to get mopey?” Galo asked, “Then what’s all this?”

He gestured towards Lio’s definitely mopey face.

“Moping doesn’t suit _you_ ,” Lio said, “And this isn’t me worrying about the future; it’s me regretting things that already went wrong.”

“Whatever, I don’t care. The end result’s the same: time wasted being sad. Now go dance or something. _Can_ you dance like that?”

“Of course I can!”

“Then go for it!”

Lio tilted his head, turning back towards the dancers. Some had stopped to take a break and were conversing at the side. Jace and Algos were among them, as was Eon, who apparently didn’t mind standing in a mostly on fire room despite having no fire powers. Apparently their talk from before still wasn’t over. Most of the people were still dancing, though, and Lio’s eyes were on them. He looked so longing. There was even a spark of a smile on his face.

“I think I could do the protective flame again,” he said, “If I can, do you want to try it too? Dancing, I mean.”

“In a fire?” Galo asked, “I think that’s against my firefighter’s oath.”

“You have an oath? With a line about dancing in fire?”

“Not exactly, but-“

“I SAID NO!”

Galo and Lio turned towards the shout that was loud enough to cut through the music and the crackle of flames. It had sounded like Eon. Sure enough, Eon and Algos were standing aggressively in each other’s personal space, having a shouting match that made most of the dancers falter and later stop into an uneasy silence.

“Calm down, old man!” Algos was saying, “It’s not like we suggested anything egregious. We just said it would be nice to have even more people here.”

It was somewhat surreal to hear someone who looked so much like a thug using words like “egregious”, but stereotypes were for the weak. Galo almost let his train of thought stray more into that, but the argument continued and brought said train into a quick collision with reality.

“We’ve talked about this!” Eon said, now quieter but still in a very sharp tone, “We won’t be taking in any more people until we know how to fix what’s wrong with you all, and-”

“Maybe nothing’s wrong with us!” Jace cut in, “Maybe those who died were just weak or sick! Besides, we shouldn’t be trying to figure this out in hiding like this anyway! We should _make_ people help us!”

“That’s not how it works, Jacey!” Eon snapped, “How many times do we have to go through this? I… _ugh_ , we’re _not_ having this conversation right now!”

That pretty much ended it. Eon stormed off, behind another window, and after a silence so awkward Galo could somehow feel it all the way in his teeth, the music started again. People kept looking around a bit nervously still, as if waiting for things to escalate at any moment. Did this sort of thing happen often?

“Huh,” Galo said, because he couldn’t think of anything else either.

“Well, at least that checks out with what Carlya told about them,” Lio mused, “Let’s keep our eyes and ears open. If we want to help these people in any way, we need to know everything that’s going on.”

The people were starting to move again, the argument slowly forgotten. Lio didn’t dance that night, but at least he didn’t look so sad anymore. Instead, he was focused, ready for anything. Galo supposed that was some kind of a win.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi people!
> 
> Galo, why do you have such an air of a physically affectionate person who ruins my plans of trying to keep up my personal masochism tango of being a writer who loves seeing characters hug (and hold hands, and cuddle, and touch foreheads together), but refuses to let the characters in their stories hug a lot? I don't know, I think that habit is because to me, pretty much any kind of physical contact in a story is very significant and I try to keep it meaningful.
> 
> Anyway, this was another sort of setup/exposition -chapter. I didn't want to dump everything into one wordmonster session and had that angst-fluff conversation from the end of the last chapter to give you a break from all the new info. Also oops, I had an idea for a yet another side character. Algos was mostly just born from me going "hey, a regenerating character incorporating their regeneration ability into their fighting style is always a cool concept!" and not being able to let go of that. And yes, the reason he hasn't been foreshadowed at all is because I honestly only came up with him while writing this chapter. But he stays because he sort of works in the grand scheme of things... I hope. I did build his personality to hopefully work for this story. He, like all the OCs here, are either just to drive the plot or to highlight something about the canon main characters. Like Alixia and Jace are totally not subtly highlighting stuff about Lio, and Fenn and Algos are doing the same for Galo... or at least try to be. We'll see how well it works.
> 
> I realise the mystery part of this story is kinda over, and we get to my writer's comfort zone, which is CHARACTERS! And yes, that has the unfortunate side effect of turning everything I write into a character study. This chapter kinda sets a lot of that up. But there will still be plot and action. And a little fluff and relationship building. Don't worry.
> 
> ALSO TIME TO JUSTIFY SOME HEADCANONS:  
> \- I've been trying to convince myself that the Promare being cut off from their star and kept in tanks is totally possible on the basis on how I think they had to be physically present within their host Burnish's bodies in order for the Burnish to make solid objects from the fire. As for how they were put in tanks when no equipment could get to Earth's core... well, I'm pretty sure it wasn't pretty and involved a lot of Burnish deaths. It'll probably be addressed later in the story... or it might not, because it's not much of a reveal. I think at least Lio and most of the other Burnish can guess right away that the Promare here are somehow extracted from dying Burnish or something.
> 
> \- Also I figured that the Burnish healing is only possible if the Burnish is allowed to burn (which is why the Burnish in the cell with the freezing rings on were apparently not healing like they should), and their healing can be stopped by the Burnish consciously refusing to heal (which would explain why Kray didn't regenerate his arm and used a prosthetic instead - it seems to be implied that it really is a prosthetic and not just something covering his arm to keep up appearances), but if the Promare are left to act freely, they can heal the Burnish without conscious effort from their host (which is how Lio could regenerate his body after the kiss of life but before he was completely awake).
> 
> Well, that's it for now. I hope you enjoy this... whatever this is shaping up to be. Thank you all for reading and commenting and kudosing! You're all so friendly! I hope you have a good time and stay safe!


	10. Flare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Burnish have a meeting. Conflicts arise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyy people! I've been alternating with writer's block, rewriting this over and over to make the pacing okay, and being distracted by my new drawing tablet I've been practising with. But I finally got something out. Also I drew cover art for this and slapped it in the beginning of chapter one. Maybe check it out if you want. That was my third digital art piece aside from the occasional vector graphic I've done, so it's maybe a bit stiff but it turned out pretty okay I think. I'm still trying to figure out all the things I can do when I draw in Photoshop and trying to find my digital art style.
> 
> Also WARNING: There is going to be one sentence with suicidal thoughts in this chapter!

_Sometimes, dreams were too much. Those times Lio was glad that Galo had a balcony, even though other times he kept thinking that someone would climb there and break in through the balcony door. When the dreams got too much, however, Lio didn’t think about potential intruders – much – and instead wrapped himself into a blanket and walked out, stared at the night sky smudged by light pollution, let the concrete underneath him leech all the warmth from his bare feet. It was uncomfortable but at least it was grounding him, made him realise he was really awake._

_“Hey? You okay?”_

_Lio turned, maybe a bit too quickly, when he heard Galo’s still sleep-heavy voice behind him. He tried to smile._

_“Yeah.”_

_“You sure?”_

_“Yes.”_

_Galo walked over to him, stood so close that their shoulders almost touched._

_“You look like you’re about to run away or fight someone. You know you’re safe here, right?”_

_Lio blinked at the sky._

_“I know,” he said, but he didn’t sound very convincing, “I mean… I want to know that. I’m working on it.”_

_“Can I help?”_

_Lio thought about it. He trusted Galo; that much was certain. But did he feel safe? He didn’t trust the world, and he barely trusted this house, and he may not have been safe in his dreams, but…_

_Well, maybe someday. It was a work in progress, he supposed. Much like figuring out how to live for himself sometimes._

_“Just… can we just stand here for a bit?” Lio said._

_Galo smiled, very gently for a guy who usually went for grins so bright they could be seen from space._

_“As long as you need.”_

_Lio smiled back, dared to close his eyes for a moment and bask in the stars that tried to get through the city’s artificial light-fog._

_He wanted to feel safe there. And he did. Well, almost. Here was a small bubble of safety in the middle of a world full of hate and danger. But wasn’t it always like that? Hadn’t he been in a bubble back when he had been a child too? He wasn’t sure when he had last actually felt safe. Maybe he did already feel that and just didn’t recognise it._

_Maybe someday he would. He had a feeling Galo would try to find some idiotic way to teach him that one too._

* * *

That night, people went to sleep late. They had danced until they had been exhausted and the fires had finally gone out. Lio had felt tired an hour before that, but he had held on until the others retired into their rooms. Eon said it was probably best that Lio slept in the observation room for one more night, just in case. While Lio already felt almost the same as he had with his first Promare, he also had to admit that he _had_ had to hold the flames back more than usually, which was probably what had tired him out relatively quickly. So he had said yes and settled on the bed in the by now familiar white room. It felt a bit awkward, with the glass wall and the bed’s placement in the middle of the room, like he was on display – which was what an observation room was _for_ , so it was perhaps inevitable. He didn’t like it much, but at least right now the only one on the other side of the wall was Galo. He had made a sort of nest from a blanket in one corner, where he could lean against the glass wall if he wanted. It wasn’t a very comfortable place to sleep in, but Galo couldn’t be persuaded to leave Lio alone. It was both very Galo and very sweet, and Lio tried not to feel too bad for him. Especially when Galo insisted that he’d be fine because he had plenty of well-slept nights stored in his body. Lio was a bit too amused by that particular gem of Galo-logic to properly argue.

They didn’t talk much after they got into the room. Galo soon fell asleep, and Lio tried to do the same even when he knew it would be impossible for a good while. There were too many things to think about, too many painful thoughts to unpack.

They were technically trapped here, in a place run by people Lio still couldn’t really trust, no matter how much they claimed they had good intentions. And while they were trapped, people back in Promepolis were probably looking for them. Lio really hoped that Meis and Gueira could keep it together and calm the other Burnish down too if the news of his disappearance started to spread. Lio wanted to go back to them and ideally bring the missing people with him too, but he also had to admit that right now it probably wasn’t the smartest course of action. Because the flames were here, but broken and hurting them, and something needed to be done about that. Preferably something that would end with no one hurt. And lastly, whatever came after was going to be a mess of such magnitude that Lio wasn’t even sure where to start with that. To be fair, he felt like he was sure about precious few things right now.

He could only really think of two: One, that he still didn’t think that Meers and Eon’s plan had been a good one, all things considered. That just taking people and trying to tackle this with a tiny crew was a disaster waiting to happen. And that it would never be okay to just take people from the streets like this. The second thing was… that Lio agreed with almost everything else Eon and many others in this facility had said. He could _understand_ why they’d done this and even why some of the people who had every right to be upset about being taken were more or less okay with this.

Losing the fire had been hard for so many reasons. The flames had been tied to the Burnish identity as tightly as they had been tied to their bodies. They had lived for the flames, and the flames had lived through them. It had been an extremely empowering feeling in a world where they were otherwise powerless. It had brought them together even as others had pushed them away. It had been the only constant for so many of them. It had shackled, but it had also given certainty. And suddenly, it had been taken away, and Lio knew that so many were struggling with that, with being truly _free_ but also more alone.

He had felt the pain too, and while he had disliked the silence in his head, he had been more okay with it than most. He had been the one to clearly hear the Promare when they had told him they needed to burn. At that moment, they had melded together so tightly that Lio hadn’t been sure where he had ended and the fire had begun. It had gone on until the end, the moment when the flames drifted through the closing dimensional rift, giggling and forever taking pieces of Burnish away with them, satisfied and free. They had _wanted_ to go, and Lio had heard that. It would have been selfish to keep them.

Lio had also never quite learned to live for himself, even after his job as a leader had sort of come to an end. His loss hadn’t weighed so heavily on his mind because he didn’t really matter that much to himself, and him being confused about who he was didn’t feel like such a big deal because he had filled his days with taking care of the well-being of others. That had been his purpose from the moment he had struck out on his own as a young Burnish. It had been relatively easy to just adapt that to the new circumstances.

Maybe he was lucky, or maybe it was just proof that his life hadn’t been much to write home about in general. Whatever the case, he knew that most of the others had taken the loss of the flames harder than he had. He had known, and yet he had still been surprised when the Burnish here told how much they had been struggling. How had he been so _stupid_?

Some had been angry when Lio had pointed out that their flames hadn’t really been theirs – a statement usually taken out of context, which was very annoying. What Lio had really said was that the Promare hadn’t been their property or just mindless energy to use, but rather their friends. Friends who had eventually wanted to go back home. He had said it in a world without the Promare, where the only thing they could do was try to move on.

Would he still say that now? In a world where some of the flames had been forced to stay?

Well, yes. He could still hear them, their cries and fear. They were still sentient beings and their friends. Friends who were not doing so well at the moment, and were inadvertently killing them. So no, they were still not _their_ flames, but they were a part of them, if that made any sense. But did Lio think they should just deny the bond they now shared again? Of course not. Eon was right; the Burnish were the only ones who could communicate with the Promare, and it would be cruel to just leave the flames here, trapped and alone. Cruel to both the Promare and the Burnish.

And yes, it was in theory very tempting to show the society that they were still on fire, that what had made them different was still here and shouldn’t be ignored. That they deserved a second chance to be treated as people. They knew so much more now. They knew what the flames were, and they knew what they needed. If they made these ones flare up again like they had with the others, satisfied their drive to burn… would they just stay now, docile and content? They didn’t have a way home anymore, and finding another one would probably be impossible. The Burnish could learn to burn differently, in ways that helped and gave life instead of uncontrollable destruction. They could build a society where the Promare and the Burnish coexisted with the others. These Promare weren’t tied to the planet’s core, so they wouldn’t cause an ecological disaster simply by reacting, and their power wasn’t as great when they were lesser in numbers like this, so it wouldn’t even be that dangerous. In a way, it sounded ideal.

Except… would it really work like that? Would people just _accept_ the Burnish this time? Would the Burnish just nicely slot back into their lives now that they had their flames again? Lio knew enough about humans to know that there were always _those_ people in every single group. The ones who didn’t think enough about others. And there were also people who were so hurt already that they _couldn’t_ think about others enough. Some would still demand that the Burnish should be locked up or worse. Some would attack, get ice weaponry just to hurt them. And some Burnish would no doubt use their flames for revenge, or to feel like they were in control by hurting others. Worst case scenario, there would be another war like thirty years ago and that had killed half of the Earth’s population.

Yes, they knew more, and people were more ready to accept them, but…

Lio pressed his hands over his eyes and tried his best not to scream in frustration. What. A. Mess.

They should probably really focus on one thing at a time. First they had to figure out how to stop the Burnish from dying, and how to heal the Promare here. And after that… well, a whole truckful of other problems awaited. Joy.

“What do you want?” he asked very quietly. The Promare didn’t understand his words, but they answered anyway, because they were always broadcasting their desires. It was in the sparks, in the silent energy pulses, in the hydrogen atoms fusing together in their deceptively tiny flame cores.

_Burnbrighterfindhome_

Okay, yeah, that was fairly obvious. But _how_ would they properly do that now?

“We can burn, but I don’t know how to get you home,” Lio said and tried to send all of his regret and sorrow to the Promare – though it probably didn’t need any extra effort because he was fairly sure they were fused into every nerve-ending anyway. Hundreds of flames moving through his system and picking up on everything he felt. Flames enveloped his hands, then his legs, chest, face. They didn’t weave into the sheets of the bed, nor the ceiling above. They weren’t the burning kind of flames, but the ones that shielded and warmed, burned in a calm teal shade. They weren’t quite the same as before. There was still a faint scratching sensation behind them, a feeling like the Promare were trying to tug each other into different directions, but Lio could still recognise the gesture they were going for. The flames flicked over his closed eyelids and curled up against his heart. A whisper that didn’t have words but that Lio had long ago interpreted as some form of affection flitted across his brain. He managed a tired smile.

“Thank you,” he said, “But I’m still sorry.”

He got the feeling that the flames were sorry too.

When the morning was starting to sneak back to the desert above – not that they really knew that – Lio had some sort of a plan, or at least a first draft of one. It was very simple and obvious, so obvious that he really wanted to run it by some other Burnish before he pitched it to Eon and Meers. He may not fully trust them, but nothing would probably happen here without their approval, and at least however they responded to Lio’s plan would probably give him more insight to them. It was good enough to start with.

When Galo woke up, Lio was up and nearly impatient.

“Hey,” he said, “I have a plan. Today, we’ve got two objectives. Or three. I want to find Phedra and see if she’s alright. Then I want to talk to some Burnish before I go meet with Meers. I’ve been listening to the Promare, and I think I’m beginning to find a way to help them. Also, we need to get word out to my generals and Burning Rescue, ideally establish a way to keep in touch with them. We won’t reveal where we are yet, but just reassure them that we’re okay.”

Galo rubbed his eyes and looked very disappointed.

“Did you have _any_ sleep?”

“You can nag about it later.”

“I don’t _nag_. That’s what annoying people do!”

“Yes, I agree.”

“Hey! Can I at least wake up properly before you start being mean?”

“No. I’d imagine you’re just as eager to start untangling this mess as I am.”

“Well, yeah, but… Okay, fine! But I don’t want you crashing in the middle of… well, anything. Deal?”

“Deal.”

Phedra was supposed to have been placed in an observation room similar to the one Lio had been in, but when they got there, it was empty. Only scorch marks were left, and Lio’s heart skipped a few beats until he realised there was no ash, and that they’d probably be told if Phedra had died. Hopefully. He still couldn’t help his fists clenching and fire trying to envelope him when they walked to the common areas.

Today, there was a ring of people sitting in chairs in the middle of a large room far away from the one overlooked by Meers’s office. All of the Burnish were there – except for Eon – and all the doors were closed. The ring of people looked official and grim, a far cry from the dance yesterday. It actually felt a bit uncomfortably familiar, like another callback to when they had been on the run; take rare moments of levity and relaxation and snap back into the seriousness of the situation and the weight of the world right after. Lio was relieved to see Phedra among the people, looking tired and still halfway into some sort of daze, but alive and mostly responsive. Someone was talking in a low voice, but they were interrupted when Phedra spotted Lio and rose from her seat, her eyes widening in shock.

“They really caught you too?!” she gasped.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Galo said.

“Hey, it wasn’t your fault,” Phedra said, “But… what happened?”

“The Promare got loose,” Lio said, “There was a bit of chaos, and those soldiers managed to capture us in the aftermath.”

“What happened to the Promare? Did they destroy… a lot?”

“Not much,” Lio said and lifted a hand, summoning a flame on his palm, “I… caught them.”

“Shit,” Phedra whispered, “You too, Boss? So then...”

Someone cleared their throat. Judging by the scratchy tone of the voice, it was Algos. He was sitting with his arms crossed right next to a very surly-looking Jace.

“Excuse me,” Algos said, “We’re having a meeting here. Either sit down or get out.”

“Oh, cool!” Galo said at once, “What’s this meeting about?”

“I was talking to Phedra,” Algos said.

“They can stay too,” Phedra said, “You wanted to know what happened to me, right? They know some things I wasn’t coherent for. We can trust them.”

Someone murmured a bit dubiously, but no one seemed to object when they lingered behind the circle and listened. Phedra sheepishly walked back to her seat and sat down.

“Okay, so… where were we?” she asked.

“You were talking about how sick you got,” said Aika Hadley, who somehow managed to look like she was sitting in a corner despite being a part of the circle. She had tiny flames floating around her head, strands of fire weaved into the thick braid she had put her dark hair in, “And how you were trying to get help but instead set stuff on fire.”

“I… yeah,” Phedra said. She looked up at Lio, “We didn’t mess things up too bad, right? In Promepolis, I mean. Does everyone know about the flames now? Are people up in arms against us?”

“No,” Lio said, “Very few know, I think. Burning Rescue and Alixia know, as well as Cybil Rosae.”

“Who?”

“A Burnish girl saved by someone in armour,” Lio said, “Do you know anything about that?”

“Oh,” Phedra looked almost embarrassed, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that was me. I was supposed to just hide. I was kinda messed up from the run and… everything, so I wandered a bit. I made the armour to feel safer, and to hide… my brain somehow thought that was a good way to do that. I saw a girl being harassed by some idiots, and I just… did what I’d got used to doing when in armour. Stupid, I know. But at least I think I saved her.”

“You did.”

“And she was Burnish? Huh. Small world.”

She gave a wobbly smile.

“Well, good thing we didn’t do any irreparable damage. We didn’t want to cause a panic. We were just supposed to escape, find someone who’d listen to us and who’d get us some help. We weren’t even supposed to use our flames unless we needed to. But Terri wasn’t doing so good, and apparently I had a bit of adjusting to do too. And when the flames reacted badly, I think we both got too sick to hold them back.”

There was a sombre moment of silence, maybe for Terri. Then Phedra tiredly closed her eyes and said:

“We can’t let anyone else die here.”

“No, we won’t,” said someone Lio didn’t know, “We have to get out. I don’t believe for one second that we can just cure whatever’s wrong with the fire by just hiding in here with a skeleton staff of either paid idiots with guns or people who don’t know shit about the Promare.”

“Yeah,” Phedra said, “I agree.”

“Your escape showed us it’s possible,” said Kieran Alannis, “Sure, they’ve tightened the security, but there has to be a way. We’ll just work together and find it.”

“And then what?” asked Carlya, “Run out into the desert and hope they won’t catch us all? Terri and Phedra got lucky, and that’s how they managed to get out.”

“I think we should figure out what’s wrong with the Promare first,” another voice spoke up, “If there’s anything we can do to fix it right now… well, it would be nicer to go back out with a longer life expectancy than months.”

“Yeah,” Phedra said, “I’d like that too. And yes, we did get lucky… until we didn’t. If we’re going to do anything here, we should plan it carefully.”

“But we all agree that we’ll do _something_ , right?” Kieran said. Some fidgeted in their seats. Someone said:

“I think we should wait for Meers to figure out how to cure us.”

“He’s keeping us prisoner here!” Jace snapped, “Why should we let him do _anything_ to us?”

“He does know stuff, and Old Eon vouches for him.”

“Because Uncle Eon is the best judge of character?” Jace said incredulously, “He befriended a lying Foresight goon!”

“We knew him as well,” said someone from safehouse fourteen, “Either he’s a really patient liar or he really does _try_.”

“So this,” Jace gestured around them wildly, “Locking us up and having people watch us and wave guns around is _trying_? Why should we settle for that? This is just… sort of gentle imprisonment!”

“Yeah, I agree,” said a very jaded-looking woman, “It sounded pretty neat in the beginning, but I think we can all see now that Meers’s ‘of course you’re free and equal to me and my hired guards’ -talk is just as much bullshit as free-range eggs. I _know_ his goons are listening in on us even now!”

 _“Yes, we are!”_ a voice called through a door, _“Are you people planning a coup d’état in there?”_

“This is _not_ an _état_!” the jaded woman shouted, “It’s a… what’s French for ‘prison’?”

“ _Prison_ ,” Lio said. He had once met a runaway Burnish from up north, who had taught him all sorts of phrases he’d thought every Burnish should know. Most of them were vulgarities aimed at bigots in uniforms. Lio could say “fuck the government” in nearly twenty languages.

_“Look, I don’t care what this place is. If you’re planning any kinds of coups, then stop it or we’ll have to start being present in all your gossip rings.”_

“Fuck off!” shouted Jace, “We can _talk_!”

_“Do I have to come in there?”_

Another voice slithered under the door, apparently talking to the first one.

_“Just keep watch at the door. Let them have their fun. We’re all friends here, right?”_

The voice said it in a tone that knew this friendship was not an equal one, and that the voice’s owner was one of the ones on top. Jace growled and hurled a tiny fireball at the door. It didn’t do much, except make one of the voices yelp and run away, presumably to ask for either backup or permission to use countermeasures. Algos put a calming hand on Jace’s shoulder and made him sit back down. Jace huffed and crossed his arms, reminding everyone that he was still not quite past his teenage years.

“We _should_ take over,” he muttered, now quiet enough that his voice didn’t carry past the doors, “Tell Meers to fuck off and find a way to get the Promare under control ourselves. And then get out of here, make anyone who tries to walk over us see how wrong they were.”

“That sounds like a lot of violence,” Phedra said, “Remember what happened the last time our people fought against the non-Burnish? I don’t think we want another World Blaze.”

“It wouldn’t be a fight,” Jace said, “Just us making it clear that we won’t take shit from anyone.”

“It doesn’t matter what happens after we get out if we just die anyway,” said the jaded woman.

“We don’t even know if the Promare were what killed Alec and Terri and others!” Jace said.

“They were, though,” Aika spoke up, “Can’t you feel it? Hear them? The flames are not okay. I’ve been trying to figure out what they need, and I think I know now.”

There was a brief, stunned silence. Then Algos spoke up:

“ _When_ did you figure it out?”

“Oh, like yesterday. At the dance. I tried to tell people, but no one listened then.”

“I think I realised something after the dance too,” Lio said, “About how to fix this.”

Aika smiled serenely.

“I figured someone else might get it too. It’s not really quantum physics,” she said, but then paused for a thought, “Well, I mean, I guess it is, but in the end, they’re just… beings. Sentient beings with instincts and wants. Like… flamey animals. Parasites but smarter.”

“Yes,” Lio said, “I agree. I think they’re scared. They’re a hive mind and not supposed to be alone like this.”

“Exactly,” Aika said, “They’re trapped and all jumbled up that’s why they accidentally break things. And by things I mean us, mostly.”

“Get to the point!” someone said.

“They were calmer during the dance,” Lio said, not raising his voice but changing his tone to the one that demanded everyone’s attention, “If we can help them re-establish a connection between each other… or find a place where they can physically merge…”

“Yes! I’ve been thinking about that,” Aika said, “I think we need to figure out a way to free the ones still in the cubes first. Except that would be a disaster if we just did it without a plan. There’s… I don’t know, tens of thousands of voices in there. We should probably try to send them back to their world, but I don’t know if that’s even possible.”

This set off a chain of objections, and for a while both the room and the fire were loud, and everything got mixed together until it was just a mess of overlapping noises, and it made Lio’s headache – the one that had started after he had reawakened and hadn’t entirely gone away since – worsen.

“Oh, so we should just give them up again?”

“We finally have something certain in our lives, and now-“

“This is all we’ve got for now!”

“We could make them accept us as we are, not just-“

“Why should we listen to the weirdo in the corner who talks to herself?”

“Aika isn’t weird! She just hears really well-“

“If we have to die to keep being us, then I say it’s an acceptable sacrifice! At least then-“

“We’re _not_ dying! We’ll make this work and we’ll keep the flames!”

“Yeah! They’re _ours_ and we should be able to keep living with them!”

Lio understood so many of these arguments.

And yet…

“Enough!” he shouted when the headache got even worse, “I understand that the thought is upsetting, but we just said that we probably _can’t_ even give them up. But even so, the flames aren’t our property. Right now they’re scared and lost. I know so many of us are too, so we should help each other instead of… of thinking we can _use_ the Promare like we’ve been used.”

He looked around in the now silent room.

“If we want to be heard, then we also need to listen,” he said, “Especially if it means understanding who we are and how we work.”

He waved a hand towards Aika, who had so far merely watched the argument unfold with a mildly bored expression on her face.

“Right now we need all the possibilities we can get, don’t we?” he said, “So yes, let’s listen to ‘the weirdo in the corner’, which by the way sounds very disrespectful, so I hope no one says that again.”

“I don’t mind,” Aika said, “Much. I’m used to people ignoring me.”

She was quiet for a moment before she realised that people were now attentively looking at her.

“Wow, really?” she said and her face brightened, “Now you _want_ to listen? Cool! Okay, so we free the Promare from the cubes somehow, then get us healed. And then we’ll probably have a whole bunch of fire aliens on the loose if not all of them bond with people. And if we can’t get them home, then the next best thing would be… like a sanctuary, maybe? My parents have one, where they take in survivors from animal farms and such. It was way fuller before the Burn destroyed most of the world’s farmland and most of the animal stuff started to come from labs. The animals could just… be there, in a nice habitat. Of course, this is… fire and not pigs, so it’s different. If we could chuck the Promare into a volcano, they might be happy and probably work okay again. But… well, volcanoes are connected to the Earth’s core, and from what I heard, the core and the Promare don’t mix well…”

“Well, can’t we have some smart people make something _like_ a volcano for them, then?” Galo spoke up, “I mean, if Kray can have guns that turn buildings into dirt, then why couldn’t someone make a fake volcano? That’s like basic science fair stuff, but they’d just do it bigger and realer.”

“Oh, wow,” someone said, “That is so dumb.”

“Hey! It could work if we make it work!” Galo said.

“Who even asked you?” Jace muttered. He turned to Aika, “You’re kind of getting ahead of yourself, though. Assuming the Promare _are_ making us sick, _how_ would we heal ourselves after we freed the cubed ones?”

“Oh, that’s easy!” Aika said, “We just have a bigger flame dance. Preferably in the place we can safely put the Promare.”

There was another silence. People stared. Then Algos said:

“So you are in fact saying that we should cure the inter-dimensional fire aliens we don’t properly understand and who might be killing us from the inside… with a dance party?”

“Yes,” Aika said, “That’s what I just said, didn’t I?”

“Oh, wow,” someone said again, “That is _so dumb_.”

“I think it sounds neat,” Galo said, “As long as you do it safely.”

“I mean, it’s less insane than setting the Earth on fire with a giant mech,” Lio said, “I’d be willing to try it.”

“The last time you tried to fix things, we lost our flames!” Jace shouted and stood up, “And even if we wanted to try this crazy plan, how would we do it when we can’t leave and don’t have a proper say in what we can do? The council is a bunch of crap and we all know it! Are we really going to let some dodgy scientist keep us in a leash?”

“We agreed that we need them for our safety-” someone started, but was cut off by Kieran, who yelled:

“ _You_ may have volunteered to stay here, but we didn’t!”

“That’s correct,” Algos said, “And we who did volunteer… do we really think this is how things can keep going? I don’t know what Meers’s intentions really are, but even if he _thinks_ he’s doing this for our safety, why should we just bow down to that, especially now when things are getting worse and he has no solutions? No matter how Meers rationalises it, those mercenaries are here to control us, and they’re the only thing standing between us and actually being in this facility as free people.”

“So you’re implying we should just _attack_ these soldiers?” Carlya said, “Even if we thought that was okay, there’s way too many of them.”

“Since when have we just let people walk over us like this?” Jace shouted, “We’re Burnish! We should show our pride and remember that we weren’t supposed to ever give up our freedom again!”

“YEAH!” yelled the jaded woman and hit the air with her fist. Then she cleared her throat, “I mean… if it works. But I’m pretty sure those mercs have some hidden weapons against us or something. Because they don’t even take us seriously enough to be here when we’re having a meeting.”

As if on cue, the door opened and four people walked into the room. Three guards and Eon, who looked like a disappointed father seeing his children planning a mildly annoying prank.

“Okay, break it up,” said one of the guards, “This is starting to sound too much like a mutiny.”

“Everyone,” Eon said, “If you have any worries or complaints, you know you can talk to me. Let’s keep this civil. Fenn is close to finding solutions. Just give him a few more days.”

He looked meaningfully at the people, especially at Jace, who was now nearly aflame with rage.

“Please and thank you,” Eon said, “We can figure this out together. And soon… we can start thinking of getting back out there, into the world.”

People muttered something, maybe in agreement, maybe in quiet rebellion. Eon smiled tiredly.

“How about we start lunch preparations? Also, garden team, I think you still had some work today, right?”

Slowly, the circle dispersed. Eon watched them go about their business and then nodded to the guards, who left a bit reluctantly. He turned to face Lio and Galo, who’d hadn’t gone anywhere.

“Sorry,” he said, “Sometimes things get a bit heated – no pun intended. Some are getting stir crazy, and some… well, you heard them.”

Lio didn’t comment on that. Instead, he said:

“Can I talk to Meers? Aika and I may have something that could help us fix the Promare.”

“Oh? Well, of course.”

Lio glanced over his shoulder at Galo, who looked fascinated and a bit lost. He wasn’t really made for morally grey situations and complex issues like this. Or maybe he was, because he had a habit of simplifying them and _somehow_ making it work.

“I’ll manage on my own,” Lio said, “Can you keep your eyes open here?”

Galo blinked, for a second confused, but then he seemed to realise what Lio meant.

“Oh, yeah! You can count on me!”

“I know.”

* * *

Letting Lio go talk to a scientist alone made Galo feel a little nervous, but he reminded himself yet again that Lio could take care of himself. And while he talked with Meers, Galo could do some scouting, figure out how to contact Burning Rescue and tell them they were alright. At the very least Galo wanted to find his stuff. His phone, wallet, keys… and his Matoi, if it had ended up here after all.

Galo was also still just plain curious about the place, so walking around was definitely a good mission for him. Sure, it was kind of creepy, but also kind of amazing. The Burnish turning one of Kray’s old facilities into an almost nice place felt somehow right, aside from all the guards. It was like taking a horribly wrong bit of the world and trying to make it right again. And they’d done a good job at it too. The fact that they had managed to build this place into something functional and comfortable, made it lose its sharpest, most painful edges was impressive. Now if only the atmosphere didn’t feel like something was about to explode out of sheer tension…

That meeting they had just wandered into had been messy and probably hadn’t helped things at all. What was even going on here?

Galo walked past a guard, and that made him remember that this was still a prison, and the place went again from sort of amazing back to creepy. Awesome had two meanings, right? So this place was awesome in both ways. He rounded a corner and came face to face with a guard he recognised. His hands automatically clenched into fists. Kev lazily waved at him.

“Oh, hey, what’s up?” he said, “No hard feelings?”

“A bit,” Galo said warily.

“Okay, fair, I guess. And I think I’ve got some too. Because I’m pretty sure your feral Burnish buddy killed Mark.”

“He’s not feral and he doesn’t kill people!” Galo snapped. _Nobody_ dissed his friends, let alone accused them of murder, “We tried to save everyone in that tunnel!”

Kev shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, we didn’t manage to find Mark from the rubble, and the last time I saw him he was pretty much down for the count. Looked like the kid packs a punch in those noodle arms. Oh, well, I guess he’ll get what’s coming to him when the flames he insisted on absorbing start backfiring-“

Now, Galo may be a hothead, and he may like the adrenaline rush of an exciting fight, but he wasn’t exactly violent. However, right now Galo grabbed Kev by the collar and yanked him forward before he had even finished his sentence. And okay, it was probably really stupid, all things considered, but _screw that_ this guy had just pushed all the wrong buttons in about five seconds!

“YOU TAKE THAT BACK!”

“Ouch, hey!” Kev sputtered, “Watch it! You hurt me, I’m gonna make you pay! Literally! We don’t get healthcare benefits in this job! Okay, fine. I guess what I said about your – I’m gonna guess life partner? – was a bit uncalled for.”

“A _bit_?!”

“Okay, a lot! As an apology I’m letting you walk away without detaining you for assaulting the security! But only if- ah, shit, another fire alarm.”

Indeed, Galo heard a very insistent and distinctly familiar yowl of a siren that was a part of his life’s soundtrack. Kev yanked himself free, pushed past Galo, and started running. Some very hard-wired reflexes almost made Galo forget about his anger and follow Kev to find the source of the fire as well, but when he turned, he saw a big, scarred man walk into his view and smile. It was a somewhat lukewarm smile, but not malicious. Probably.

“Don’t worry, Rooster,” the man said, “The fire’s completely under control. I triggered that alarm to get that asshole off your back.”

“I… uh… okay?” Galo said, trying desperately to keep up with what was going on, “Thanks? I was fine, though.”

“Really?” the man – Algos, if Galo remembered correctly – said, “Because these people may not be _the worst_ , but I still wouldn’t count on them not doing something nasty if pushed far enough.”

His smile turned a bit more strained.

“But that’s not really why I interfered. I just wanted to talk to you. And I can’t do that if you’re locked up who knows where.”

“Oh? Well, let’s talk then, I guess.”

“What are you planning, Rooster?” Algos asked, “Why are you barging into our meeting and right after sneaking around, picking fights?”

“I didn’t pick a fight,” Galo said, “I was looking around and trying to find the stuff these guys took from me.”

“And you thought you’d find them in their mech hangar?”

“Well, I don’t exactly know where all their hiding places- wait, they have a _mech hangar_?”

Algos pointed at the door at the end of the corridor. Kev had probably been guarding it, and it even had a lock. And now that he thought about it, Galo didn’t remember Eon showing this part of the facility to them.

“Right behind that door,” Algos said, “They’re mostly for maintenance, or in case of a fire gone wrong. Slightly older firefighting tech, I believe, stolen or illegitimately bought. I assume they have even heavier equipment hidden somewhere as well.”

Galo’s interest centres were immediately fire up, and his eyes were drawn towards the door, sparkling and wide. But he forced himself to focus when Algos’s voice dropped into a threatening growl:

“I just want to be sure you aren’t making too many waves here.”

“I’m not. It kinda looks like everyone else is doing enough of that.”

Algos raised a brow and regarded him thoughtfully.

“Watch it,” he said, “You don’t know anything about us. Say, what’s that on your arm?”

Okay, weird change of subject. Galo tapped the medical sleeve he kept on his left arm.

“This? Got some burns under there.”

“Why do you cover them?” Algos asked, pointedly putting his own blatantly scarred arms on display by laying his hands on his hips. It was a challenge, but not aggressive enough for Galo to bite.

“It’s more comfortable?” he just said, “Also it makes the people I rescue less scared… you know, not seeing burns right after getting out of a fire.”

“Are they from Burnish fire?”

“Yeah. It was an accident, though.”

Algos chuckled. It sounded a bit like rocks grinding against each other.

“Well, look who’s being practical and understanding. Those are some points in your favour. I still don’t like you, though.”

“Oh? Uh… sorry?”

“Don’t take it personally, Rooster,” Algos said and stepped forward. If Galo hadn’t had about zero sense of self-perseveration in situations like this, he would have been intimidated, “I don’t like most people anyway.”

He nodded vaguely towards the walls.

“That world out there? I’d _love_ to go out there and burn it all, make the people who hurt us writhe and beg for mercy. Turn the tables, you know? And I’m not the only one here who wants to do just that. You heard us back there. But we won’t do it like that, because we’re better than them, and because we can’t afford that now. There’s only a handful of us and… what, almost four billion of them? And the Burnish here deserve better than a futile fight, or going back to what used to be.”

“Yeah, you do,” Galo said quietly.

“But you know what we also don’t deserve?” Algos said, “Being forced into your moulds, suffering quietly while others pretend they’re being oh-so-generous and progressive by accepting us now that we’re ‘harmless’. I know that sooner or later, the other Burnish here will see the way I and some others see. And then we’re going to make noise. We’re going to burn and we aren’t going to let them forget who we are. Or what they did.”

He tugged on the collar of his plain t-shirt, exposing his upper chest. There, among a few battle scars, was a much more surgical one that disappeared under the shirt and made Galo feel a bit sick.

“Most of what I’ve got are for intimidation,” Algos said, “But not all. Some are reminders. Us Burnish… we usually don’t show any physical signs of abuse. But trust me when I say that all of us have been hurt. In more ways than you know.”

“I can guess,” Galo said, “And yeah, we shouldn’t forget.”

Algos frowned.

“Okay, I might think you were being patronising if you didn’t seem too stupid for that. I guess that makes you more tolerable than most.”

“I try to be more than tolerable,” Galo said, “I want to help you guys.”

Algos didn’t look very impressed.

“Then don’t rock the boat, and stay out of our way. We’re trying to build something here, and we don’t need any outside saviours.”

He turned and lumbered away, leaving a slightly lost and a bit irritated Galo standing alone in the tiny corridor.

“I wasn’t even _going_ to rock any boats!” Galo yelled after a confused silence that had maybe lasted a moment too long. Galo rubbed the back of his head and glared at the door that was apparently in the way of firefighting mechs. This place apparently still managed to be full of secrets.

Then another fire alarm started, and this time Galo _did_ start running.

* * *

Lio was nearly literally fuming when he was escorted out of Meers’s office. Apparently people had been right when they had said that Meers didn’t actually listen to them. Meers had wasted no time going for the ‘we need to stay hidden to protect all of you’ and ‘we are definitely going to save you all’ -phrases. That alone would have been frustrating, but he also had the audacity to keep constantly implying that none of the Burnish could possibly know how to solve this. But apparently Meers could because he was oh so smart and had experience and apparently _really_ needed this atonement. He didn’t even let Lio call anyone when he tried to tell him he would only do it so no one would look for them.

He stomped back into the common area, where people were cooking, cleaning, or lounging around and talking. Some were reading books or scrolling something on older models of holographic tablets. Lio spotted Dalia, who hadn’t spoken a word during the meeting, and who was now staring into nothing with dull, lifeless eyes.

He couldn’t put this off any longer. It didn’t matter if he didn’t really know her. She looked too hollow to be left alone.

“Hey,” Lio said quietly, “How are you?”

Dalia slowly looked up, eyes searching for long moments until she recognised him.

“Oh, Lio!” she said with a voice that had once been soft and warm, but was now cracked like old plaster, “You’re here too?”

“I… yes? I’m sorry. I should have talked to you more.”

“It’s alright,” Dalia said, “I was… where’s Alec? Have you seen him?

Lio felt like all the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. He knelt in front of Dalia’s crouched form and tried to meet her eyes. She kept staring through him.

“Alec is gone. Do you remember?”

Dalia stared, suddenly looking like she would fall into ashes right there.

“Oh,” she breathed, “That’s right. I’m sorry. I keep forgetting.”

“No, _I’m_ sorry.”

Dalia smiled.

“None of this was your fault,” she closed her eyes, “Alec and I didn’t really need these flames, not even after curiosity got us here. What we liked here were the locked doors… the safety. Even though it was probably an illusion. We thought that no one would hurt us here. But then…”

She might have cried if she’d had any tears left. Sparks travelled down her cheeks instead.

“If I asked nicely, do you think the Promare would let me go to Alec?” she asked in a very small voice. Lio tried his best to keep breathing.

“I… I don’t think Alec would like that.”

Dalia lowered her eyes towards hands that had tried to help so many over the years.

“I’m sorry, Alec,” she whispered. Her smile was broken, and flames pushed through it.

And they didn’t stop.

Suddenly Dalia’s eyes snapped open and she convulsed.

“Oh no…” she gasped, “I didn’t… I didn’t mean… I’m sorry! _Please, help_!”

Her hands were on fire, and energy exploded out of her so forcefully that Lio was almost thrown backwards away from her. He held his ground, though, even when the heat hit him. If he hadn’t been Burnish, his face would have melted right off. Somewhere, something started to screech. Probably a fire alarm.

“Dalia!” Lio grabbed her shoulders, not sure what else to do, “I… it’ll be fine. Just… try to stay calm.”

“It’s the flames,” said a serene voice behind him. Aika, “They’re all messy. They should know they’re not alone. Can you do that?”

“I can try,” Lio said and closed his eyes, let his own flames come forth just enough so that they mixed with Dalia’s wild ones, “I’m… _we’re_ here. It’s okay.”

It was easy to say the words, but _feeling_ the same intent and broadcasting it to the other flames was harder. The Promare scratched harder under Lio’s skin, and he gasped when Dalia’s fire surged forth and tangled with his, desperate as if they wanted to burn them both out at once.

Lio tried his best to ignore the tingling pain that rushed over him, and the cacophony of whispers that ran like white-hot wire through his brain. Instead, he focused on everything calming, tried his best to make both Dalia and the Promare feel safe. He thought about the things that made _him_ feel safe. Most of them were related to the person who was apparently already yelling his name somewhere behind the flames. Despite everything, he smiled.

And then, the pain was gone. Dalia slumped even further forward, the flames returning into her body. Lio slumped as well, landing on his elbows and dragging in cool air that stung his too-warm lungs.

“-io! Lio!”

Oh, right. The voice. The safety.

Galo was at his side the instant the flames dissipated, and Lio again felt hands on his shoulders.

“Hey!” Galo was yelling, too loud and wonderfully familiar, “Can you hear me?”

“Yes,” Lio said and blinked his vision back into focus. Dalia was staring at him with eyes that were now slightly less dead, “Dalia? Are you…?”

“I’ll survive,” Dalia said, “I think. Thank you.”

She shrank back when some guards walked over to lift her to her feet.

“Hey!” Galo said, “What are you doing to her?”

“Taking her into observation,” one of the guards said, “Meers can check on her.”

“It’s okay,” said Aika, still watching the situation unfold from her corner, “They won’t hurt her. I can go with them.”

The guard glanced at Lio, who had managed to get back up on his knees with Galo’s support. Lio felt Galo’s grip on him shift protectively.

“How about you, kid?” the guard said, “You need to get checked too?”

“I’m fine,” Lio said and wriggled free of Galo’s grasp so he could stand and look slightly more convincing, “If that changes, I’ll let you know.”

The guard shrugged and started walking away with a very dazed and still very grieving Dalia. Aika spun around to give them a thumbs-up.

“Good job!” she said, “You really helped her!”

“I hope so,” Lio said. He watched them walk away, saw Dalia stumble and Aika rush to help her back upright. People had gathered to stare when the fire had started, but they slowly started walking back to their own spots. Lio wasn’t sure how often these things happened here, but even once was too much. When he and Galo were alone again, Lio looked around to make sure there were no cameras directed at their faces. Then he leaned a bit closer to Galo.

“We need to get these people out of here,” he whispered.

Preferably before something – or someone – exploded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof, I'm starting to think that pretentiously naming every chapter with a fire-word wasn't a good idea because it's really getting gimmicky and I'm also running out words that suit the mood of the chapters. That idea sort of worked when I thought this was going to be way shorter. But this fic just keeps on going because whenever I'm like "okay, now something will happen" I realise I need to set up even more stuff! Also don't worry about the mass of characters in this one. Most of them are just side characters that don't do much for the plot... Or then worry because it means this story is just bloated with unnecessary crap. :/
> 
> Thank you for your patience! I hope everyone stays safe!


	11. Flicker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lio and Galo plan a not-so-epic phone heist. They aren't the only ones plotting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My chapter kept getting EVEN longer again, so I split it in two. So the next one should be up soon after this one. Yay?

_There was a conversation Galo and Lio had had many times already after they had set the world on fire. The first time it had happened wasn’t long after Lio had been let out of prison. They had been working with the clean-up crew, and Galo had insisted that Lio needed to take a break. So he had practically planted himself in front of Lio, with a collection of cans and thermoses full of drinks in a backpack. They ended up sitting on top of a concrete fence that was still intact. It overlooked a road that had been scorched from below, and a park that had miraculously survived almost untouched. All the green looked almost weird in the middle of the grey rubble._

_Lio was balancing the mug of tea Galo had handed him on one knee, fingers loosely curled around the edges. Sometimes Galo could catch a glimpse of him pressing his palms against the hot sides of the mug so tightly it had to burn._

_“How’ve you been?” Galo asked, “We haven’t seen each other in… one and a half weeks, right?”_

_“You’ve been counting?”_

_“Yeah,” Galo said, because things didn’t need to be too complicated, “I like talking with you.”_

_“Thanks.”_

_“And I’ve been worried about you. You look really tired.”_

_Lio stared at his tea._

_“I am tired,” he said, “There’s a lot of work to do. But I’ll be fine.”_

_“You will be if you rest every once in a while.”_

_“I rest,” Lio said almost petulantly, “When I need to. I can take care of myself.”_

_Galo gestured so wildly he almost knocked over his own can of soda._

_“I know that! But it’s just… you… what_ have _you been doing aside from yelling at jerks and helping the Burnish?”_

_Lio looked at Galo as if Galo had just asked him to explain quantum physics._

_“Do you do_ anything _other than yell at jerks and help the Burnish?” Galo asked carefully._

_“Not at the moment,” Lio said, “But why would I? There’s no time.”_

_Sure, that had been what Galo had expected to hear, but it didn’t make it any less pleasant._

_“Ookay, but have you at least thought about what you want to do once this all is… less weird?”_

_“I don’t think I need to worry about that,” Lio said, “With the way humans don’t learn from their mistakes, it will take more than a lifetime to fix all this.”_

_“So you’re just going to keep yelling at jerks until you die?”_

_“Yes,” Lio said, “Or until they stop being jerks. And there’s also the matter of getting all the Burnish rehomed, helping them reintegrate into society, ensuring they keep getting treatment for their trauma and physical injuries…”_

_“What about you?”_

_“What_ about _me?”_

_“Aren’t you going to reinter… get back into society?”_

_Lio didn’t answer. Galo sighed._

_“Lio! You know you can think about yourself every once in a while!”_

_Lio was staring at his tea again. He was clutching the cup too hard, and his hands would have probably been in danger if he wasn’t wearing gloves. All of a sudden, he looked even more tired than before. Galo shifted just a bit closer._

_“You okay?” he asked._

_“Fine,” Lio said, “Look, Galo, I appreciate… all this. But right now, I… I know what you’re trying to say, but I don’t… To be honest, right now helping others is easier than trying to figure out how to just... live. You have to understand, I became Burnish when I was very young. I didn’t know who I was back then and I certainly don’t know who I would be now. For almost all my life, all I knew were the flames.”_

_His expression was a weird mix of regret and pride Galo didn’t know could even be a thing._

_“Right now, I’m a hero to the Burnish, and they turn to me for guidance. Sure, I won’t be officially sitting in any city councils for them – we have people with more experience and much less criminal record for that – but I will be speaking for them wherever I can, and I’ll make sure that they have what they need. I help them because I want to. That’s the most certain thing I’ve ever been able to say about myself.”_

_Oh, wow. Galo wanted to both cheer and cry at the same. And definitely hug Lio until Lio felt better and got everything about his life figured out._

_In a way, Galo got it. Helping people was a big part of him too. But maybe the difference was that Galo had almost always known entirely who he was and who he wanted to be. Even after losing his parents, even when everything had been awful and scary and he had lived in a constant, murky pit of grief, he had known. Even after realising that the person he had wanted to be like was actually a monster, he had quickly – mostly – bounced back, because he had still known who he himself was._

_He supposed that it wasn’t as easy for a lot of other people. But then again, if Galo knew anything about Lio, it was that Lio would never truly give up even if a task was difficult. He would figure it out. And Galo would be there for him._

_He gave Lio his brightest smile._

* * *

Now, Galo may want to help every person he ever could, but he wouldn’t call himself overprotective by any stretch of the imagination. Some risk-taking in just the right circumstances was fun and educational for everyone. But right now, with Lio’s life possibly ticking away with each flare – or whatever the Promare needed to accidentally kill the Burnish – and them being stuck in this place, Galo felt extra jumpy about every little thing. And to be fair, walking into a room and finding someone on fire was usually not a little thing. Lio had claimed he was okay, though, and put on his brave, stoic front usually reserved for everyone who wasn’t a close friend or a distressed Burnish. Lio sat in a chair by a lone table, arms crossed and legs taking up way more space than should have been possible for someone his size, and while that was normal enough, Galo still had to look him over one more time. He looked tired, and a little off. Like his usually bright self had become sort of translucent. But it was probably just stress and lack of sleep. Right? _Right?_

“Galo, why are you staring?” Lio asked, a little impatiently.

If Galo worried out loud, Lio would just get annoyed again. Worrying probably didn’t even help at this point. They’d just have to push forward and fix things first, and then Lio and everyone else would feel better. That was fine. Galo was good a pushing forward.

“So,” he said, “How’d it go with that Meers-guy?”

He could have sworn that the air around Lio turned a few dozen degrees warmer. It was a very sharp, angry kind of heat.

“About as well as these people told me it would go,” Lio said, “Meers is just another selfish bastard. Maybe I’ll try talking to Eon once more, and if that doesn’t work, it’s time to make another plan. Did you find anything?”

“Not much. More secrets.”

Galo told him about the door with the possible mechs behind it, and about Algos and how it kind of felt like _everyone_ was planning something. Lio listened with a thoughtful look on his face. The temperature around him was slowly dropping back to normal as his frustration turned into something more neutral.

“It’s definitely something,” he said, “There’s so much tension here, and not just between Meers and the rest. Or the guards and the Burnish. It’s… I don’t know, there’s this electricity in the air. Or maybe that part is just the Promare in those cubes, screaming.”

“You still hear them?”

“It’s hard not to,” Lio let a small flame flicker to life on his hand, “But I can push it into the background when I’m not trying to make sense of it. My own flames drown them out pretty often. Don’t worry about it. I’ll tell you if it gets bad. I promise.”

He closed the flame into his fist. It bled between his fingers for a few seconds until it disappeared.

“We’ll ask the ones who have been planning an escape,” he said, so quietly Galo barely heard it, “See what they think, and if they have a follow-up plan.”

“Aww, man, this is getting complicated! Why can’t we just… go in there and take care of stuff?”

“How? Not everything can be solved by just blindly rushing in, or… or a Deus ex Machina!”

“Well, duh! Because it’s broken!”

Lio sighed.

“That’s… never mind. We also need to contact the others. Where do you think we can find equipment for that?”

“Probably that Meers-guy has some?” Galo whispered, “And maybe the guards? I saw they had an office in one hallway. They might have my stuff somewhere, at least.”

“Sounds reasonable. We check both offices tonight. At least Meers has to sleep at some point, and I doubt he lets many people in his office. How do you feel about some sneaking around?”

“For a good cause? I’m in!”

Lio narrowed his eyes.

“Sneaking around means quiet, you know.”

“Ha! Galo Thymos can be quiet when it counts!”

“ _Can_ you?”

“Heck yeah!”

“I’d be more convinced if you weren’t saying that so loudly.”

“We’re not sneaking now,” Galo said and glanced around, “Besides, all these people are just going about their own business.”

“This place has cameras and I’m going to assume mics as well everywhere. So keep it down.”

“Okay, fine,” Galo reluctantly lowered his voice, “How are we going to be sneaky with all the cameras, then?”

“I have a plan for that.”

“Already?”

Lio smirked.

“You think that time you got me arrested was the first time I ever infiltrated a facility? Seriously, you’ve seen my criminal record.”

“Seen it, yeah. But read it? Dude, it was too long and depressing. So what’s your plan?”

“Well, most of it relies on us playing dumb.”

“Ooh, I’m good at being dumb!”

The laughter he got out of Lio was the most carefree Galo had heard in days. Now _that_ was definitely a win.

* * *

Fenn Meers could freely admit that he had never been a very brave man. What he _had_ always been was persistent. That persistence had got him through a long stint in the university and later into a lucrative and – at least on paper – appealing job at the Foresight Foundation. He had been presented with a fascinating challenge, the solving of which could help him save the world from out-of-control magma. It had been more than he had ever dared to dream of back when he had been a timid boy who did advanced calculus in the margins of his notebooks that still had kitten stickers on it. The job had been great, and he had made so many wonderful discoveries. Yes, sometimes people had been brought in, and some other scientists had overseen very painful-looking extraction processes. But those people had been Burnish, and Fenn had been taught that Burnish were dangerous savages. He hadn’t liked hurting them, but he had kept telling himself that it was a necessary sacrifice, that these Burnish were dying anyway, and he wasn’t brave enough to speak up. So he had reluctantly watched while the others strapped fading Burnish down and caught their flames as their bodies crumbled to ashes. But aside from that, it was a dream job.

And then, a terrible discovery had been made, and Fenn had realised just what kind of horror he had been involved in – no matter how much it had been by proxy.

He’d had three options. Either realise that he couldn’t deal with that – which he was too stubborn to do – try to forget, or atone. Atonement sounded the most noble. It sounded _right_.

It still sounded right, even though more and more Burnish here seemed dissatisfied with what they were doing. Yes, Fenn knew this perhaps wasn’t the most efficient way to do things, but too much efficiency had always led to cruelty, as far as Fenn knew. And despite the occasional complaint and dirty look, most Burnish here were happy. They had their fire back, and they felt more like themselves. That had been Fenn’s goal – give something back. He hadn’t foreseen that these flames would turn deadly, but that was a problem that could be solved. And he could do it without exposing himself to the outside world, because being discovered now would definitely solve nothing.

It was again one of those cases when some self-reflection may have been appropriate, but Fenn Meers wasn’t brave enough for that in a situation like this. Not even when that newcomer, the famous… alternative-looking young man, had come by to talk about going outside and merging the Promare in a controlled environment. With people – no, _outsiders_ – finding out and helping, endangering everyone here. That wouldn’t do.

* * *

Phedra wandered in to talk to them at one point. She looked a little bit more alert and less dead on her feet. She sat down next to Lio as casually as she could, and flashed them a weary smile.

“Hey,” she said, “So, what do you think? That meeting seem alright to you?”

“It seemed like the people aren’t agreeing with a lot of things,” Lio said.

“Yep,” Phedra sighed, “It’s been like this ever since they started capturing us, I hear. The people from the safehouse – not counting some exceptions – are pretty okay with everything, so it worked out. But now, some of us want to leave, and others want to take this place over.

“I figured.”

“I still want to leave too,” Phedra said, “But I don’t know… we’ve made plans. I don’t know if any of them work, though. I think the takeover-camp is also planning. I don’t know how they’re going to do it, but it sounds like it’s going to be messy.”

She played with a loose thread hanging from her shirt sleeve. For a second, her mind was somewhere else entirely.

“Of course, what happens after, no matter what happens _here_ , is a whole another thing,” she said.

“Yes,” Lio said, leaning to his knees and trying to sound like he wasn’t dreading that moment.

“Our group thinks your plan was still a good one,” Phedra said. Lio looked up at her.

“Which one?”

“The one where we just get the hell away and build our own city. Heck, this place could even be a start of one, except it’s iffy for now. At any rate, I don’t think we can just go back home.”

“Why not?” Galo asked.

“Because people would freak out? We need to be careful and make sure they’re at least readier for this. Us, I mean.”

“You’d need more people for that,” Lio said.

“Yeah. But we’d be getting help first, like Terri and I wanted. That means more people.”

“Right.”

“What about you, Boss?”

“What _about_ me?”

“What do you want to do after this place goes down in one way or another? Because it will. Soon.”

“I…”

Lio realised that he had once again forgotten to think about himself. He shrugged his shoulders.

“I… I will do whatever is best for the Burnish here,” he said, “I’ll help you sort this out.”

“Wait, so you’d leave Promepolis?” Galo asked, his voice much more fragile than usually.

“I didn’t say that,” Lio said, “I don’t know what the best course of action is yet.”

“Boss…” Phedra sighed, “I asked what you _wanted_ to do.”

Lio looked at her blankly. Galo clapped a hand on his shoulder.

“That’s a tough one still, huh?” he said, probably much less cheerful than he sounded, “Well, we’ll figure it out!”

“One thing at a time,” Lio said a bit impatiently. He was probably getting dangerously close to what Galo referred to his “pouty” face, which was also apparently adorable – much to Lio’s annoyance, “First we contact my generals and Burning Rescue.”

“Contacting people would be great,” Phedra whispered, “This place has nearly nothing that can be used to communicate with the outside, though, and those are all locked up tight. It’s telling that Terri and I thought just running away was _easier_ than getting our hands on any communications stuff. Though maybe it’s easier now, what with everyone so focused on watching that no one escapes again. That’s a hard _maybe_ , though.”

“We’ll have to try anyway,” Lio said, “If we end up in trouble over that, pretend you know nothing.”

“Hey, don’t leave me out of this. I know a thing or two about how things work here. Like _where_ those communications things are.”

Lio smiled.

“I’m listening.”

* * *

Jace Morado had been lucky enough in that despite having to run away from home at a young age, he hadn’t done it alone. He’d had his mother with him no matter what had happened, and that had resulted in him having a fairly good chance of growing up in a nurturing environment. His mom had even managed to enrol him into a new school whenever they arrived in a place where they could settle for longer. And on the run, she taught him things, read books from an old tablet as fire crackled in the background, taught him to interpret weather patterns, even walked him through stealing a car in an emergency. But as Jace had grown, he had got tired of hiding and running while their people suffered. Mom had always only cared about them, and whoever they had spent more time with. It was like the rest of the world didn’t matter. Jace didn’t like that, and he definitely didn’t like it how mom had insisted that they should just try to form a steady life now that they didn’t have their flames, and act like it was fine. It wasn’t.

Jace hadn’t thought much when he had gone after Uncle Eon. He had just been angry, and known that something was up with Uncle Eon and that following him would probably lead to something more meaningful than a life in a shabby apartment, where he tried to apply for higher education that didn’t want him. With neighbours who either scowled or looked with pity, and with knowledge that ultimately he had just been a tiny gear in a large, fucked up mechanism. Powerless despite all the fire inside him.

Now things were different, though.

Jace glared when Meers walked by him on his way to some task or another. He had never trusted Meers. The moment he had been marched into the facility after following his uncle, he had mentally labelled Meers as a lying douchebag. _Anyone_ who exploited others was some kind of an asshole, and he didn’t really care how nice the facility was. It was still a prison. He hadn’t said no to free Promare, though. Never. Nor had he said no to new, tough friends. The kind of friends he had dreamed of when he had felt powerless and alone or when he had wished his mom would let him fight. The kind of friends who could teach him things he hadn’t had the chance to learn on the run. Together, they could plan things. Meers may have been an asshole, but he had something going here. If they could take it over, run it their way, they could really do something good. They could save so many Burnish who were suffering without their fire, and they could show the world that they couldn’t just be ignored.

They had been almost ready when Terri and Phedra had escaped. That had put the whole facility on high alert and then lockdown, and they’d had to adjust, plan a little more. It was frustrating, because Jace didn’t like waiting. Especially now when so many things were at stake.

Jace looked up when his uncle approached.

“Jacey,” he said, and Jace grimaced. He had started to hate that nickname when he’d turned fifteen and thought he was old enough to _not_ be treated like a child, “I really hoped you all would stop conspiring like that.”

“It was a meeting,” Jace said, “What, we can’t talk anymore?”

“Of course you can,” Eon said, “But I’d like to be included too. I just want to know… if anyone has any complaints, then tell us and we’ll figure out a way to make things better. But we _need_ to keep this place safe for everyone, and we can’t do that if people keep sneaking about. Do you remember what happened with Terri?”

“We don’t _know_ what happened to her,” said Jace, “We’ve just been told that she died after running away. And if she really died because of the fire, then she would have died _anyway_.”

“Jace, show some respect, please,” Eon said tiredly, “Also, I heard that someone had been near the room with the Promare at nights. We _know_ it’s dangerous to be near it alone.”

“Everything is dangerous to you!” Jace said, stepping forward with sparks flying under his shoes, “Because it’s easier to keep us afraid of every little thing and make us believe that it’s safer to just stay here! We’re not meant to hide underground! We’re meant to get out there and live our lives!”

Someone murmured in agreement, and Jace realised they had attracted a crowd.

“We aren’t prepared enough to go out yet,” Eon said, “If you want to discuss that, Jacey, we can do that too-”

“It’s _Jace_ , old man! Stop treating me like a kid! Hell, stop treating _all of us_ like fucking children!”

“If you want to be treated like an adult, then maybe stop using juvenile language.”

Jace turned to the people crowded behind him and spread his arms wildly, flames arching from them, creating a few seconds of halo around him.

“How many of you are tired of this shit? If we get more people here, we’ll have the power to go out there and fight back against whoever is going to try to come at us again! What’ve my uncle and Meers planned? For us to squat here in a damn prison! We all fought so we could be free, and now… we can’t just keep being okay with this!”

“Jace,” Eon said, “Could you stop riling up the crowd? We’re not revolutionaries anymore.”

“We should be!” Jace snapped.

“Jace,” Algos stepped past the crowd and raised his hand, “Calm down. This is not the time.”

He gave Jace a meaningful look, and Jace realised he had said too much. He sighed and muttered something fitting a rebellious teen – because that was what his uncle seemed to see him as anyway, and stormed off as he tried to breathe. For now, he’d need to stay calm. But soon…

Soon they’d be ready.

* * *

Even with Phedra’s help, it took a couple of days of them wandering around the facility, acting like they were just going about their lives while they were actually checking places and cameras, until Lio deemed them ready to start doing some breaking and entering. The places where they might find anything even related to outside communication were locked and even guarded, but Lio estimated that pickpocketing Meers’s key chip or whatever it was could take care of all of that. According to Phedra, no one had dared to even try it, but there was a chance it would be relatively easy once the man was asleep in his own room, which was guarded by just one guard and locked with a mechanical lock – something Lio knew he could take care of. There would be guards, of course, but Lio and Galo had the advantage of being a relatively neutral party for now. And most of the guards here seemed to think that at least Galo was a complete idiot – which wasn’t entirely true, but was something they could definitely use to pull this off.

They could have made more preparations, sure, but both Lio and Galo were impatient. The more time they spent here without getting word to any of their friends, the more likely it was that people would get very nervous back home. Hell, they might even _find_ this place somehow, and without any information, things could quickly escalate into a confrontation no matter how peaceful Burning Rescue – or even Meis and Gueira – would go about it. And the people were getting more and more agitated here, arguing and even getting into glaring matches with the guards. Whatever was going to happen, this place wouldn’t last long if the tension kept building like this. And with nothing else to do yet, Lio wanted to do _something_ potentially helpful. So not too long after they had the basic plan down, they waited for the lights to go off in the corridors, and then got out of the observation room that served as their home base for the moment.

Lio led the way, walking soundlessly – his shoes had survived his awakening, and he _always_ made sure all of his footwear was silent – through the corridors, doing his best to look like he didn’t have much of a purpose. They went for the sitting room and kitchen area first. It wasn’t unheard of for people to wander there at night. They pretended to get lost and “accidentally” ended up near Meers’s room. There was a man standing at the door, guarding it as if Meers was worried someone might kill him in his sleep. As much as some didn’t like Meers, Lio doubted anyone would go _that_ far. There was a camera watching the corridor. Lio just happened to position himself in the corner right under it, just out of sight of the man at the door, and he nodded at Galo with a look that said: _we won’t have much time when the camera goes dark, so go fast._ It was a complicated look, especially for someone like Lio, who usually kept his face fairly neutral. But there was something about sharing a bond in a planet-sized energy mech that lingered, made it often easy for them to read one another. Galo nodded back at him, and Lio opened his hand. A tiny flame bloomed on it, and Lio let it slither upwards and solidify around the camera’s lens. He nodded again, and Galo was already moving. The bored guard had been staring at a wall, but his night quickly turned far less boring when a firefighter barged in.

“Wha- who’s there?” the guard asked, “This place is off-limits.”

“Wait, it is?” Galo said in an exaggeratedly confused voice, “Man, did I get lost! How many hallways _are_ there in this place? Ooh, what’s that door you’re guarding?”

“Meers’s room. Now go back.”

“Oh, he’s got his own room all the way up here? Wow, what are the odds that I’d end up right here now, when I definitely have things to say to him! Is he awake? I was looking around and man, this place has _several_ fire hazards waiting to happen, and I’m not talking about the people here. He should know about them.”

“It’s nearly one in the morning.”

“Accidents don’t wait for a good time!”

“Look, if you don’t leave right now, I’m going to have to escort you away.”

“Oh, you’ve got a gun? Isn’t that kind of overkill? Is that a freezing gun? An older model, huh? I think I had one just like it when I was in training, and-“

“Okay, that’s it! Come with me and stop bothering people at night!”

“Am I being annoying? Sorry about that, I just-“

“Are you still talking? Shut up and walk.”

Lio ducked into a small alcove as a very disgruntled guard marched Galo past him. Then he rounded the corner to Meers’s now unguarded door and pressed his hand to the lock. It was time for a trick he’d learned back when he had run with a small group of people who’d done a lot of breaking into empty houses because they’d had no other place to go. He fed fire into the lock mechanism, careful not to melt it, and let the Promare take a form that fit the lock just right. He moved his makeshift lockpick around until he heard a small click, and smiled a quick thank you to the flames before he sneaked into the room.

Meers was asleep, and surprisingly trusting of his guard and lock. Lio had expected the man to wear his keys even to bed, but instead, the key was found in one of his drawers. This was almost too easy, but Lio had enough experience with “too easy” not to think it too loud in fear of jinxing it. At least Meers didn’t keep his possible phones in his room. That would have been _scarily_ easy. Lio exited the room, closed the door, and dashed back into hiding just as the guard marched back to his post. Lio called the flames in front of the camera back into his hand as soon as he was out of the machine’s sight. With any luck no one had noticed one monitor suddenly going dark for a minute or two.

Galo was waiting in the large common area, impatiently fidgeting on his feet.

“Well?” he whispered, “Did you get it?”

“Yes,” Lio said, “It wasn’t a problem. Stay alert. Things like this can always go wrong at any point.”

“Got it, big boss! Should we get to Meers’s office next?”

Meers’s office was supposed to have at least two guards nearby at all times. When Lio and Galo got to the office’s vicinity, there was no one there. That immediately put Lio on edge, and he stopped at another blind spot and pulled Galo right next to him.

“You see anyone?” he said so quietly it was barely a sound.

“No,” came the reply.

“Shit. I don’t like this.”

“Should we go anyway? I mean, even if something’s going on, there’s no one here now.”

“Unless they’re inside the room.”

“Okay, good point. Should we risk it, though?”

Lio weighed their options. They would probably get busted anyway at some point or another. Ideally it would be _after_ they’d got their hands on a phone or a radio or anything that could be used to send a message out to their friends. But if they came this far now and just turned back, what were the odds of them doing this so easily again? Lio closed his eyes and breathed, let sparks spread around them and listen as well. It didn’t _feel_ like there was anyone there. Maybe… maybe sometimes things just were easier.

“Let’s do it,” he whispered. He handed Galo the tiny chip he had just stolen, “I’ll eliminate cameras as you go. The less time they’re dark, the less of a chance there is that someone investigates.”

“Got it.”

Despite his default setting being “loud and larger than life”, Galo had turned out to really manage a stealthy approach as well. It didn’t seem natural to him at all, but he did it anyway because it was needed. And because contrary to popular belief, he _wasn’t_ as stupid as he initially came across.

Lio focused on darkening cameras as he had promised, and Galo disappeared through the door and into a room they had only ever been once, when Meers and Eon had tried to somehow rationalise their kidnappings to them. Lio held his breath and waited. The hallway was still eerily silent, with no guards in sight. He kept his ears open for footsteps that never came, waited for the click of a freezing gun that wasn’t there. It was somehow worse than everything going wrong.

Well, okay, maybe not _worse_ , but it made him far more anxious. Because usually when things did go wrong after so much success, they would do so _hard_. Lio folded his arms, the tips of his fingers sinking into his biceps. Suddenly he missed his sleeves. And his jacket. He was almost never so uncovered. The t-shirt felt unfamiliar, and tucking it into his high-waisted pants could only do so much to make him feel normal. _Everything_ felt uncomfortable when he was tense like this. The smell of the place – fireproof materials and antiseptic, the feel of the not-quite-right Promare skittering under his skin, the silence that was only broken by the quiet hum of air-conditioning and the occasional whirr of cameras. He tried to think back to operations that _had_ gone without a hitch. There had been some. They’d even managed to commandeer a helicopter once or twice. How had those even happened? Lio didn’t remember. It had mostly been a blur once the plan had been put in motion. But it had worked, and that was what mattered and made him feel a little better. A phone in a loosely (at least by appearances) guarded facility was much easier than a helicopter.

Galo was soon running out of the room, holding something in his hand and smiling widely. Another lucky break. How many did they have left?

“All good?” Galo asked. Lio nodded, mouth in a tight, concentrated line. He released the cameras and they started walking away as nonchalantly as possible. Well, Lio did. Galo was basically vibrating.

“Man, I didn’t know _quiet_ could make me so pumped!”

“It’s the adrenaline and the possibility of being caught at any moment,” Lio said, “We can make the call in the restroom. There are no cameras there. Then we go to the kitchen to grab food for appearances, and return Meers’s key on our way back. Do you think he’ll miss the phone you got?”

“Probably not. It’s mine.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. He kept all my stuff in there. I didn’t take anything else yet.”

“Good thinking. The less has changed, the less likely it is that we get caught.”

They walked through a white door with a sign for a restroom on it. Galo chose Aina’s number and they huddled together near the sinks as the dial tone struggled to beep with bad reception. This place may have been deep underground, but nowadays it was almost impossible to be out of reach of telephone operators. Especially since – at least according to Galo – Lucia had done _something_ to Burning Rescue’s phones to make calls possible even from orbit for whatever reason.

_“Galo?”_ Aina finally answered, voice rough like she had forced herself awake just seconds ago – which she probably had, _“Is that you?”_

“Yeah,” Galo said, “Lio’s here too. We’re okay.”

_“Holy shit, where are you?! We’ve been so worried!”_

“In a facility somewhere. It’s okay, though. Well, kinda.”

_“We talked to that Alixia-lady. She said she was investigating Burnish who had gone missing and were apparently in some underground place in the desert. We’ve been trying to look for that. Is that we’re you are?”_

“Yeah. The other missing people are here too. They were kidnapped, but the people behind it think they’re helping them. Some even sort of like it here. This is… a weird situation, but we’re fine. For now.”

Lio leaned towards the phone’s speaker.

“We need you to stay calm,” he said, “Especially Gueira and Meis. Are they okay?”

_“We’re keeping them in check.”_

“Good. Tell them that I’ll let them know when they need to come and help me. They can keep the other Burnish calm too.”

_“They’ve been trying, I think. But everyone’s been confused. Did you really find more Promare?”_

“Yes,” Lio said, “They’re stored in tanks, and there’s something wrong with them. They aren’t linked to their star properly anymore. It’s weird and not safe, but we’ll explain more about that later. For now we need you guys to locate us if you can. But don’t just burst in alarms blazing. No one’s in danger from the people here, and we need to try to unravel this situation carefully.”

_“Right. Okay. I’ll tell the others.”_

“Yay, thanks, Aina!” Galo said, “I knew we could count on you.”

Something crashed, and Lio immediately dropped into a fighting stance while his pulse rose into a painfully fast rhythm. Then the hum stopped. Everything stopped. Well, everything electronic anyway. Something, or someone, had cut the power.

_“What was that?”_ Aina asked.

“I don’t know,” Galo said, “I’ll go take a look. Lio, tell Aina whatever else she needs to know.”

“Galo, _wait-_ ah, shit.”

_“He’s gone already, isn’t he?”_

“Yep.”

_“Go after him. We’ll find you, okay?”_

“Thank you.”

Lio gave her a few more instructions and ended the call. Then he stuffed the phone into his back pocket and dashed out into the hallway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyy, I love heists. Not much more to say about this. I'm trying to wrap this story up in maybe like three chapters? We'll see. Thank you everyone who has been reading! Feedback is very much appreciated!


	12. Extinguished

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two pairs clash. Hallways will burn, and plans will be ruined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter contains fight scenes and depictions of injuries. I still don't think it's very graphic, but the injuries would be severe if they weren't happening to characters with rapid healing powers. Blood is mentioned once.
> 
> EDIT 27 September: Fixed the part with Heris a bit so that Aina and Lucia visit her at night soon after they get the call from Galo and Lio.

_“So_ how _did this happen?”_

_“I threw my remote.”_

_“How do you throw a remote at your own head?”_

_“It hit a wall and then bounced back.”_

_Lio stared pointedly at the sizeable lump forming on Galo’s forehead and then pressed a cold gel pack on it. Galo winced and kept glaring at the remote that now lay on the floor in three pieces._

_“Why did you even throw it?” Lio asked. Galo shrugged, but his face told Lio it wasn’t a shrug-thing at all._

_“There were Kray-news on TV, and his face was there. I wasn’t prepared, so I kinda angry-panicked.”_

_“Oh,” Lio scrunched up his nose, “That’s fair.”_

_He looked thoughtfully at Galo’s face. Something was broken behind the lingering anger. Something Lio wanted to fix but didn’t know how._

_“Well, he’s still locked up,” Galo said, “I know that. And I won’t let him depress me.”_

_“Right.”_

_“You okay?”_

_“I should be asking_ you _that.”_

_“I’ll be fine.”_

_“Good.”_

_He wasn’t quite convinced, but he supposed he wouldn’t get anything else out of Galo for now. His eyes strayed to the TV, and they fell into a comfortable silence, during which Lio’s mind went to things he had spun around in his head over and over, because they made too much and too little sense at once._

_“Whatcha thinking?” Galo asked._

_“I… nothing… Or well… you told me once that you would save him too. Why?”_

_“Are you angry?”_

_“No. Just curious.”_

_“Well, it’s my job, right?” Galo said, “I can’t choose not to save people, no matter how bad they are. That’s way too much power, you know? We need to stay responsible. And that was_ his _point, right? That he’d have to choose. That he thought he_ could _choose. That’s… not right.”_

_“Wow. That’s deeper than I thought. Has anyone told you that you’re-“_

_“An idiot? Yeah.”_

_“I was going to say ‘a ridiculously good person’.”_

_“Oh?” Galo’s eyes widened a bit, “Not really, no.”_

_“Really? Then I’m saying it now, and probably in the future too.”_

_Galo’s smile turned mischievous._

_“Are you getting soft on me?”_

_“Shut up. Just know that your saving everyone -attitude will keep hurting you. And I guess your habit of throwing objects at walls will do that too.”_

_“Ha! I know! But it’ll take more than trouble or remotes to get rid of The Great Galo Thymos!”_

_Lio suppressed a laugh._

_“I really hope so.”_

* * *

Heris Ardebit flinched when the doorbell rang. She wasn’t sure when she had started doing that, but it happened even now when she knew it was Aina. Her sister had called in the middle of the night and wanted to meet. Normally everyone would have to officially schedule a meeting in order to visit her now when Heris was still technically a convict. Not that she deserved any better. But Aina had said that she’d explain this one away as a check-in for Burning Rescue purposes. Heris wasn’t sure if anyone would buy that, but Aina hadn’t taken a no for an answer. Heris opened the door and instantly stepped back when the proximity sensors beeped. Aina wasn’t alone. A shorter young woman with bright pink-streaked hair and an unnervingly sharp grin was standing next to her. She kept looking at the sensors around Heris’s house with great interest while Aina and Heris hugged. Heris was fairly sure she recognised the other woman as the tech-person in Aina’s workplace. They hadn’t exchanged many words, but her aura, which seemed to be constantly charged with manic energy, was hard to forget.

“Hey,” the woman – was her name Lucia? – said, “Sorry to third-wheel your sister-bonding moment, but we’re actually not here for that at all, so I’m not sorry. We might need your help.”

Heris stared. Aina gave her an apologetic smile.

“Yeah, sorry about being here at this hour,” she said, “Stuff came up, and we’re preparing to do a rescue, but there are things we need to account for.”

Lucia marched past them into the living room and slammed a briefcase with rainbow stickers on the coffee table. It took her about five seconds to take out a clearly modified laptop.

“You can fill her in while I set up my things, right, Aina?” Lucia said, “I’m gonna need to take some notes.”

“What’s going on?” Heris asked. Aina told her. If it had been anyone else telling her, Heris wouldn’t have believed them. Some of the Promare had stayed behind? Kray had managed… _When_ would that man’s influence finally be truly washed away?

Heris lowered her head when she thought about that. It was partially her fault he had got so far. She had… she had done so many horrible things…

“So we don’t know exactly what to expect out there,” Aina was saying, “From what we do know, the Promare are contained, but if they’re taken out of the containers, they go wild. And we need to stop that somehow without hurting them. Before he hung up, Lio told me something about maybe getting them to merge in a safe, contained space. Would that be possible?”

“You’re asking _me_?” Heris asked.

“Yup!” Lucia said cheerfully, “You know a lot about harnessing them and even storing their energy, right?”

Heris swallowed a lump that rose into her throat.

“Y-yes… I do. I’m sorry.”

“Well, now you have a chance to maybe do something good with that,” Lucia said as if she wasn’t talking to a person who had assisted a genocidal maniac, “I know we’ll need a lot of time for a more long-term solution, but how about a temporary one for emergencies real quick?”

“I don’t know if I can…”

“We can try, right?” Aina said, “Lucia is trying to pinpoint their location even now, but we can’t just sit here and do nothing while we wait for that.”

“I should have the location down at any moment now,” Lucia said, “It’s such basic stuff now that we have a tiny spark of a signal from Galo’s phone that I could definitely use a side project. So, how about it? Wanna tell me what you know?”

Heris nodded slowly. What else could she do? It wouldn’t make the things she had done go away, but at least she’d be doing something right for once. She hoped.

* * *

The building seemed to exhale all its electricity out in one, melancholy note. Lights switched off, cameras powered down, even some computers shut down. A place like this was supposed to be always alive, alight, and now it was truly asleep for just a moment. It made Jace Morado feel slightly cosmic, especially since he had always been fascinated with electricity anyway. But he had a mission, so he refused to get distracted by anything. He looked around with eyes that were covered by an intimidating visor. He’d been working on constructing his armour ever since Algos had taught him the basics. It was difficult. He still hadn’t got all the details down, and the armour was still a bit stiff at the joints, but it was good enough. Wearing it now made Jace feel all kinds of powerful. Especially combined with him shutting the power. Power that was mostly from the trapped Promare in their cubes. Trapped like the Burnish had been far too often. Trapped like they were now. That needed to change, for all of them. But before that, Meers had to go.

They had a good plan. Right now the only things keeping Meers in charge were his guards and the fact that some people were okay with him doing whatever as long as they themselves were happy. All they needed to do was get some backup, take out the guards and get more fire to turn the tables. Then they could show the others that things would be much better without a privileged idiot taking advantage of them. As some of their friends started running towards an emergency elevator, which had its own generator separate from the main power and was now protected only with a flimsy, manual backup lock, Jace felt happier than he remembered feeling in years. He was finally doing something for his people. He wasn’t powerless anymore, not some child angrily burning small objects in a hideout with mom lecturing him about safety. He was a man now, like the people he admired – and even certain people he had admired until they had taken the fire away.

Jace’s happiness was dampened only by a few guards, who were there faster than they had anticipated. Maybe they _had_ made a bit too much noise, and maybe Jace _had_ been a bit careless, but they could still work with it. Algos and Jace made quick work of them, smashing them against walls with tendrils made out of fire while their friends ran.

“How bothersome,” Algos sighed, “We need to hurry so we can get to the Promare before our friends come down.”

“Friends” meant some of Algos’s old gang buddies, with whom Algos had managed to hold a secret meeting thanks to Uncle Eon, who had once let Algos come with him on a kidnapping mission. Algos had conveniently “disappeared” and been found apparently beaten up later, with his attackers already long gone. Uncle Eon had bought it without question, because Uncle Eon wasn’t a good judge of character. Jace couldn’t wait to meet Algos’s friends. They had to be awesome!

“Oh,” Algos said, sounding especially displeased, “I hear more footsteps. Get ready.”

“How many?” Jace asked and turned to squint at the darkness of the hallway. Emergency lights cast a sickly green glow at the edges of the floor, but Jace could see quite well without them anyway. The Promare were buzzing in his ears and entwining with the cells in his eyes. He could make the fire do so many things now. He was so much more than he had ever been. So much more powerful, and so much angrier.

The source of the noise materialised from the deepest shadows without even attempting to be subtle. Stupid hair and a stupider face. It was Thymos, that firefighter who had helped Lio take the fire away. Jace _really_ didn’t like that guy. If Thymos hadn’t been dumb as rocks, Jace would have classified him as a lying douchebag as well. But he supposed he was just an idiot who didn’t know enough but still had to stick his nose into everyone’s business and play hero for people who really didn’t need that kind of shit.

And now he was here, doing just that and ruining their plans in the process. Flames rose into Jace’s throat, made his heart speed up with anger. He let the anger curl into a ball that he channelled through his fingers. Thymos yelped and jumped out of the way of the fireball that shattered against the wall.

“Get lost!” Jace shouted.

“Hey!” Thymos yelled, “Can you at least tell me what’s going on before you start shooting? I’m not here to fight you!”

“Likely story!” Jace scoffed, “Aren’t you all about putting out every single fire?”

“Well, yeah, but I’m not going to _hurt_ you!”

“You already hurt us when you took away our flame!”

Jace hurled another fireball at Thymos, who dodged again. Thymos dashed to drag one of the guards, whom Jace and Algos had incapacitated, through the nearest doorway and out of sight. Jace huffed and lit the entire length of corridor on fire with a flick of his wrist. Cameras fizzled and popped in the sudden heat, and the green emergency glow was suffocated under the intense pink of the Promare.

“Coward!” Jace yelled and walked into the doorway Thymos had run through, knowing with some vanity that he probably looked really badass against the flames that were illuminating the hallway behind him, “If you’re going to stick your nose into our business, at least face us like a man!”

“I’m _not_ a coward! I’m rescuing!” came a yell from behind a metal desk, “Also I’m not sticking my nose into anything! I just want to know what’s going on!”

“That’s exactly what sticking your nose into things means!”

“I know that!”

“Then shut up and get out!”

Thymos stuck his head out from behind the desk.

“Why are you so angry?”

“Because you shouldn’t _be here_!” Jace spat through gritted teeth and waved his arm in a heavy arch that prompted fire to solidify and toss the desk out of the way. Thymos stood in front of the unconscious guard and held a freezing gun, one of the bigger ones the guards carried around while pretending they were friendly. He wasn’t pointing it at anyone, but it still made Jace’s blood boil – even more than it already kind of did.

“Whoah!” Thymos said, glancing at the desk that was now smashed into a wall like a half-melted tin can, “That’s pretty badass, but also getting too destructive, so stop doing that! There’s people in danger here!”

“You mean the guards?” Algos asked gruffly from behind Jace, “Why should we care?”

Thymos sighed dramatically.

“I get it. You don’t like them. And I don’t like them much either. But I’m a firefighter, so I don’t pick and choose who I save!”

“You’re saving no one here!” Jace snapped, though it came out a bit more childish than he would have liked. They probably didn’t have many shots with this. They _needed_ to get this right, because there would be repercussions for all this and Algos’s friends would probably have to bail them out, and they couldn’t do that if the fire couldn’t even _reach_ them because _this_ idiot was here wasting their time. What _was_ he doing sneaking about anyway?

Thymos moved, and Jace shot more fire. A wall of ice blossomed in the middle of the flames, and Jace could feel the Promare recoil from the cold. Thymos had created a small dome of ice around the guard, and was now putting fires out left and right with the gun he’d stolen.

“Okay, we don’t have time for this,” Algos sighed and raised his hand. As strong as Jace felt, he was still in awe of Aglos’s raw power. Just one thought, and fire shot out from between the floorboards like it was an active lava field. Thymos practically shrieked, hopping back towards the corridor while still shooting ice into walls around the guard, apparently caring very little that his own shirt had caught fire. Thymos hotfooted almost comically across the room and back into the corridor, finally tearing his shirt off and letting it fall on the floor. Algos followed Thymos, stepping right through flames and slamming a solid fire wall into Thymos’s side. The man stumbled and slid into a painful halt against the end of the corridor, but only went down on one knee. Jace could hear the gritting of Thymos’s teeth all the way from the other end of the hallway.

“Why are you doing this?” Thymos said, “I’ve had way too many misunderstandings with you people already, so I really want to know!”

“If you want to understand, then step aside and watch!” Jace said.

“Well, I can’t do _that_! What you’re doing right now is endangering these people. Nobody’s dying on Galo Thymos’s watch!”

“He’s stubborn,” Algos said, “I _hate_ people who are both stubborn and stupid.”

He raised another wall, this one filling the entire corridor. To Thymos’s credit, he didn’t even flinch, but rather tried to stare the fire down. It would have been badass if it hadn’t been so stupid. Algos probably had no intention to kill Thymos, just to knock him around and injure him enough for them to run and continue towards their goal. But from what Jace knew, Algos was _brutal_ when it came to even non-lethal takedowns.

The wall slid forward like a freight train, but stopped before getting anywhere near Thymos. A barricade of flame was blocking its path. When Algos raised his hand to call the flames back, spikes erupted from the ceiling above him and the floor below, not impaling but creating a cage on all sides with the exception of a gap near the ceiling. It was just big enough for a small figure to jump through and land in front of Algos.

Lio Fotia straightened from the crouch he had landed into, letting fire wash over him and turn into black armour. Despite Jace’s grudges, he had to admit that Lio’s entrance had been pretty damn impressive.

“Jace, Algos,” Lio said in a dangerously quiet voice, “Why are you attacking people?”

Algos didn’t even look at Jace, but Jace could tell that he was smiling. Algos yanked one absurdly strong arm free of the spikes now restraining him, and the rest of the cage started to crack as well when he started to push back. One of the spikes shot straight out when Algos swung his arm, and Lio grabbed it from the air, morphing it into a sword without even sparing it a glance. Algos chuckled.

“Nice,” he said, “You know, I don’t like hurting one of our own, but I do like a good fight. So, people who set the world on fire, show me what you can do.”

Thymos weaved his way through the remains of solidified fire and stood next to Lio, gun at the ready. Lio glanced at him.

“He’s playing us, Galo,” he said, “They’re up to something.”

“Well, yeah, but I’ll bite if it means we can stop them from… hurting people? Is that what you’re doing?”

“I’m going to enjoy shutting _you_ up,” Algos said, “Jace, get ready to go.”

Jace nodded reluctantly. He didn’t want to just run, but he knew he needed to get to their destination now or this could very well fail before they could even properly get going. So he got ready, and when Algos flared up and exploded the spike cage so that the shards flew all over the place, he ducked under the worst of the barrage and started running.

* * *

Algos had a strong flame. He practically wore it around him like some sort of cape, or like a badge of honour. That showing off had clued Lio in very quickly that Algos would be a powerful opponent, so that was why he was also not surprised when Algos could explode the temporary cage Lio had made around him. Lio threw a shield of flames in front of the shards, and they melted into it, returned back to the fire that flowed through him. Before the flames were completely out of the way, Lio rushed through them, twisting aside at the last moment when Algos’s fire spiked towards him, and raising his sword for a quick slash. It connected, but only barely. Algos managed to dodge and jump back with a small, rapidly closing cut in his shoulder. That was fine. Lio wasn’t going to kill anyone. Not here, not ever if he could help it, but Algos was a big guy with probably very high endurance and pain threshold, so it would take some hard hits to take him out of the fight for even a moment. And they needed several moments to catch up with the now running Jace and find out what the hell was going on here.

He followed his slash with a series of quick slices that Algos managed to dance out of the way of, and he had to suddenly duck and slide out of the way of Algos’s flames that took a wicked, roughly axe-shaped form and cleaved through the air. Algos quickly changed the direction of his swing, but didn’t quite manage to get it moving before ice burst around his blade and hands. Galo was moving towards them, and even though Lio appreciated the backup, he also hoped that Galo would keep his distance and _not_ forget that he wasn’t wearing any of his firefighting gear now. Had Galo even lost his shirt at some point? _Again_? _How_?

Lio wished he could send a spark to Galo, like he had apparently done without even knowing in the battle with Kray. That had protected Galo from Burnish fire and fall damage alike. But would these flames do that? Would they go volatile if he tried to make them accept a non-Burnish as a kind-of-host? Or would they just burn Galo instead?

He couldn’t take that risk. He kept his eyes on Algos, who smashed the ice covering his arms against the wall. Lio dared a quick extend of his fingers towards Galo and a nod towards the hallway Jace had disappeared into. _I’ll take care of Algos, you go find Jace._ Galo hopefully got the message. Lio couldn’t turn to look, because he had to raise his sword to block Algos’s next swing. Algos was smirking above his axe, his beard aflame and looking like some sort of god of fire from the north.

“Nicely done, children,” Algos said, “You certainly can move, but I asked for a _fight_!”

He stressed the last word by changing the angle of his weapon again and breaking the short-lived blade lock between him and Lio. Ice was shot again, and Lio could get some distance for a swift fireball and then a quick approach from the side.

“Galo, go!” he shouted, because it didn’t feel like Galo was moving anywhere except to a better spot to offer support, “Catch Jace!”

Algos responded to that instantly. A sharp tendril of fire was shot out towards Lio’s face, missing him only by an inch when he leaned back out of the way. Another series of fire spikes was fired at Galo, who dodged, weaved under and over them and managed to freeze one in mid-air. That made Algos almost pleased. And also distracted enough for Lio to get a hit in. He cracked the flat of his blade against Algos’s skull, hard enough to stun, and then proceeded to kick the man’s legs from under him.

Or tried to.

* * *

Jace ran through the hallways, passing darkened spaces and taking sharp, determined turns. Even in the dark, he knew the way. He had memorised it for this moment. Soon, their backup would be coming down into the facility, and they should be greeted with flames they could reconnect with. If they all had their flames back, they could easily overpower everyone. It was a _great_ plan. Sure, Jace hadn’t accounted for Thymos and Lio appearing and standing in their way, but Algos would take care of them. Or then they’d defeat them together after Jace had finished his mission. It would be fine.

He was so focused on the empowering rush of adrenaline that he almost ran into the cold, metallic arms of something he’d rather not encounter right now.

Jace, Algos and their friends had known the guards had mechs. They had been prepared for them. But Jace, alone and high on flames and near-success, had almost completely forgotten about that. And now a machine the size of the entire hallway blocked his way. A man was in it, looking very serious and definitely not ready to waste any time. Jace barely had time to summon a tiny flame before a barrage of ice slammed into him, and his limbs and lungs were plunged into paralysing cold.

* * *

Algos’s axe shot out much faster than it should have in the hands of a guy who had just got hit hard enough for a concussion, and Lio only barely dodged it. That was fine. Sort of. He had expected something like this. He had known Algos was one of those who made getting hurt a part of their strategy.

“Not a bad hit,” Algos said, “And you both work well together. You don’t disappoint.”

Galo said: “I know! But thanks!” the same time as Lio said:

“Quit trying to distract us! Where is Jace going?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Yes! That’s why I asked!”

“That one was called sass, kid.”

“I know! And it’s also a bad line!”

Algos swung his axe, but Lio wasn’t where he had been a millisecond ago, and the axe crashed against the floor.

“I don’t think you have any merit to judge!” Algos said, “I’ve seen the footage of your fight with Foresight!”

“Are you dissing the burning soul -speeches?” Galo yelled, “Anyone who disses the burning soul is wrong!”

He fired a series of ice bullets, some of which missed, and some of which hit Algos in the shoulder and chest. Algos grunted, and Lio took that opportunity to move in again, this time more cautious in case this was a ruse too. He led Algos away from Galo, and then raised a wall of solid fire between Galo and them.

“Hey!” Galo shouted, “I was backing you up!”

“I told you to get Jace!” Lio yelled back, “I have a bad feeling about where he’s going!”

He positioned himself between the wall and Algos, sword in one hand and a flame in the other. Algos sighed.

“Sorry, children, but I can’t let that happen.”

He rushed towards Lio, and they clashed, fast and vicious. Algos’s strikes weren’t nearly as effective as they had been, though, and that told Lio that something was going on. Was Algos tiring now, or was this another distraction? Probably a distraction. But for what? What was he doing?

Lio got his answer when Algos slammed his foot down, and threads of fire jumped across the floor and into the wall Lio had made. Lio glanced over his shoulder to see more spikes emerging from the wall, and he jumped, leaping over Algos so that when the spikes shot, Algos would have to either stop them or be impaled by his own attack. And surely Algos wouldn’t be _that_ insane. Surely he wouldn’t risk that much damage in the middle of a-

One of the spikes shot straight through Algos’s side, and Algos took it with only a small grunt. A quick and shocked thought of: _Okay, so he_ would _be that insane oh shit_ \- hit Lio’s brain with roughly the same force as the spike of very solid, very sharp fire that punched through his armour and lung.

He wheezed, coughing out a garbled noise that would have been a scream if he’d had more air to use and less blood rushing up his windpipe. That was all he had time for before Algos struck him in the arm so hard that something cracked and his vision blacked out. He must have cough-screamed again, and somehow ended up on the floor. Feet that were on fire blocked his vision, and he heard rather than saw Algos raise his axe again.

* * *

Galo heard something shatter like glass, and then Lio try to scream. All plans of going after Jace evaporated from his mind and his vision tunnelled towards the wall Lio had created to cover Galo’s retreat. He hadn’t _asked_ for a wall! Lio should have let him stay for backup! A mix of worry for Lio and rage at the guy who had hurt him got Galo over and through the jagged wall faster than should have been possible. He quickly took in the sight of Lio on the ground, a spike of fire through his chest, armour coming off in pieces and an arm in an entirely wrong angle – though quickly righting itself – and Algos standing over him, on fire with a closing hole in his torso, his flame-axe poised to strike.

Yup. That was it. Galo saw red. And not the good, fire-engine red either. It was the red of blood rushing into his brain out of sheer anger.

“GET AWAY FROM HIM!”

Usually, yelling at someone before hitting them from behind was a bad move especially if the fighter had enough experience to pay attention to their surroundings. But Algos hadn’t counted on Galo being there or scaling that wall so fast. And he also hadn’t counted on a non-Burnish being so phenomenally stupid that they’d barrel into him while he was still on fire. So when Galo Thymos ran up to punch him, he didn’t know how to react until the hit was already there. Galo was pretty proud of his punches. They could down a person pretty neatly. Algos was a big guy, and definitely tough, but even he went to his knees and came back up rubbing his jaw with a look of deep respect on his face. A look that turned into that of alarm when the fire wall next to them exploded into ice, and a huge, old firefighting mech marched through and opened fire on them. Well, ice, actually. It hit Algos, it hit Lio, who had just managed to yank a spike out of his chest, and it hit Galo, whose world turned into painful stillness when ice so cold it instantly stung spread over his limbs and chest.

The heavier ice weaponry wasn’t meant to be used on regular humans. The cold was so bad that it could very quickly cause severe frostbite. Galo had endured a few hits during his training anyway, because it was important to be prepared for someone using their own gear against them. But that had been controlled, and even the stray hits he’d got on the job hadn’t been as bad as this. The only time that had been worse had been that absolute zero cannon Kray had fired during their fight, and at least then they’d had a mech in the way. Galo went down, gasping for air and feeling like his limbs were about to fall off while someone walked next to him and kicked him so hard he rolled onto his stomach.

“Wh-what’s going on?” Galo yelled despite shivering like mad and still not getting in enough air.

“That’s what _we’d_ like to know,” came a voice from above him, “Breaking and entering? Attacking guards and sabotaging our power room? And now fighting in our corridors? What the actual hell are you doing?”

“That’s not our job to ask,” came another voice, and Galo bristled when he recognised it as Kev, “We just lock them up and tell Meers and Morado about this, and they sort this out.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Cuff them.”

“They told us to be gentle,” said a third guard.

“Well, if they wanted these people to be coddled, they should have maybe reconsidered hiring violent mercenaries to guard them.”

Somewhere in the background, Algos was cursing the guards, and then his voice turned much more urgent when he said:

“Jace!”

Galo turned his head and saw that Jace was indeed hanging between two guards, half of his body covered in frost and freezing cuffs around his wrists. The cuffs were also an older model, only covering wrists and hands unlike the even bigger, more restraining new ones Freeze Force had used before they had been disbanded, but Galo knew these were pretty efficient too. He glanced at Lio, who was struggling to get up even as two men were holding him down and kicking shards of his armour out of the way.

“I heard this kid can burn through even the newer freezing rings,” said someone, “What do we do?”

“I’ve got an idea,” Kev said somewhere above Galo. Galo’s hands were pulled behind him, and he felt very cold metal click around them. The cuffs hummed dangerously, as if wanting everyone to know that they’d shoot out ice if someone just looked at them wrong, “We just give him motivation _not_ to do that.

“What are you doing?” Lio asked in a rough voice. He squirmed in the men’s hold once more, but they held fast as Kev came over to fasten a cuff around one of his wrists, “Galo isn’t Burnish! Get those off of him!”

“Nope,” Kev said and motioned the two to haul Lio up and drag him towards Galo, “We need you both to stay put, and you seem to like each other. So how about you don’t even think about doing anything stupid. Just sit all nice and quiet, and your man will be fine.”

Something seemed to dawn on Lio, and the renewed his struggles, angry and strangely frantic.

“Don’t you dare! I won’t even try to escape anyway! Don’t-!“

“Yeah, I don’t believe you,” Kev said, “Cuff him together with the blue idiot.”

Galo was yanked into a sitting position, and Lio was shoved against Galo’s back. Galo heard the click of a magnetic lock and felt a tug as Lio kept struggling. Kev laughed a very nasty laugh and said:

“Yep. That should work. Try anything, and your buddy is either going to get burned, or his cuffs will also activate and freeze his hands off. Also I know you’re thinking it, so I’ll just say _yes_ , I _am_ doing this because I’m still salty about Mark.”

Lio hissed a few very scathing words, but then fell silent and seemed to focus very intently on something. Galo wasn’t sure what it was, but he knew that something was wrong. As if everything wasn’t wrong at the moment anyway. Kev didn’t seem to care about any of it, but instead turned to the admittedly sweet-looking retro mech and jabbed a thumb over his shoulder towards a hallway that still resembled a battlefield.

“Hey, mech-guy!” Kev said, “Can you haul all four of these into one of the old holding cells? The rest of us should probably go and see if the others took care of that gang we spotted near the perimeter.”

“Fuck you!” Jace yelled.

“Yeah, yeah. We’re just doing our jobs. It’s not _our_ fault you decided to wreak havoc. Now shut up and let us work. We’ve still got plenty of fires to extinguish, thanks to you.”

“That’s what _we_ were trying to do!” Galo shouted, but Kev was already walking away, “Hey! Come back here! HEY!”

Kev flipped him off without even looking back while the mech started clanking its way closer, a big mechanical hand ready to drag them away.

Well, this was a bit of a disaster. Again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ehh... so this was the second half of what became the original monster of a chapter 11. At least things are happening in it? Fight scenes are... what they are. I usually turn very clinical when I try to write those, but I try to keep the style at least somewhat consistent.
> 
> Thank you for sticking with me still! I'm really trying to wrap this up in two chapters? This story has already been at least twice as long as I'd initially thought. Oops.
> 
> Thank you all who've read, kudos'd and commented! Feedback makes me very happy!


	13. Brighter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So much fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I fixed the scene in the previous chapter where Heris, Aina and Lucia meet. Mostly I changed it so they meet up at night soon after Galo and Lio's call. I need to make this timeline make some kind of sense because even in Promare world, which functions with the Rule of Cool, things need at least a little bit of logic. A tiny little bit.
> 
> This is the second-to-last chapter. Yayyy!

_The Promare remembered. Not in pictures, not in sounds nor words, but in electrical impulses. They reacted, they caught snippets of things they didn’t understand. Of destruction and hate, and of softness and love. They remembered the Earth’s fire, and how the primitive human had learned to use it and started to rise to such heights that even those with words couldn’t fully describe it. In both good and bad, though those were concepts the Promare didn’t understand. They understood energy, the burn, the chemistry in the brains of humans that reacted to emotions. But even they had some rudimentary sense of compassion, and a desire to protect._

_They remembered a Burnish and a non-Burnish coming together and lighting the perfect fire. They remembered their home disappearing, the connection cut, while they could do nothing. They had caught glimpses of their other pieces, trapped and crying out. Snippets of people coming together, reforging a bond with the Flame. And through the connection within the Burnish from the perfect fire, they remembered anguish, pain, uncertainty, and love. They remembered anger at people in suits, and joy on a rooftop. They remembered peace in a bright smile, and laughter._

_They remembered it all, yet they didn’t understand much of it._

_And now, they felt anguish again, heard the cries of the rest of them clearer than ever._

_Soon, they would be free. They could burn brighter and find home. Or at least find each other again._

* * *

Galo, Lio, Algos, and Jace had been unceremoniously dumped into a small, dreary room without windows and with a thick metal door. Everything was reinforced and metallic, and it sort of looked like a military-grade freezer. Which it probably was. Right now it wasn’t colder than the rest of the facility, but Galo had a very uncomfortable feeling that the temperature could be turned down very easily. It was a bit weird to have people-cells like this in a facility where people were supposed to just lock up flames. But then again… how _had_ those flames got out of the Burnish to begin with? Galo didn’t know, and he had a feeling he didn’t even want to know.

“Those bastards had better let us out,” Jace muttered from the corner he had been dropped in. Frost had spread all the way up to his cheeks, and he looked winded, like someone had shot more ice than necessary at him. Which they probably had. Galo liked these guys less and less. They reminded him a bit of Freeze Force, except these guys were less efficient and way more reasonable.

“I’m sure they will,” Algos said, “Your uncle wouldn’t dare keep you here for much longer.”

They did dare to keep them, actually. Galo was impatiently tapping his foot, waiting for the door open, and Algos and Jace glared at the walls. Lio didn’t do much of anything. He had been eerily quiet ever since they’d been put here, but Galo could feel his breathing. It was steady and slow. Had he fallen asleep? Or was he still in his focus-mode?

Algos and Jace didn’t talk much either, and it was actually rather awkward. Heck, it was _very_ awkward. As far as uncomfortable silences in Galo’s life went, this one probably ranked in the top ten. Had there even been ten of those in his life? He usually broke them without even noticing they were there. But here, when they were all tired and hurt and didn’t like each other very much, it sort of actually fit, and Galo didn’t dare say anything.

Finally, Jace groaned, and the spell was broken.

“Can’t we just break out and meet up with your friends when they kick those guys’ asses?”

“I don’t know if they _can_ do that,” Algos said, “These people are pretty well-equipped. If our guys haven’t freed us yet, we can assume they got locked up or even killed. As for the breaking out-part, I think setting off fires in a small space like this could very easily fry Rooster, and I don’t think Lio would like that.”

Lio shifted a bit, and he probably looked at Algos.

“I wouldn’t,” he said in a tired voice. Algos looked at Lio with an unexpected trace of worry on his face.

“Whoa, are you okay? I didn’t think I knocked you around _that_ hard.”

“I’m fine,” Lio said.

“Did you have time to properly heal before they iced you?”

Lio didn’t answer, and Galo felt a chill run down his spine.

“Wait, you’re still hurt?” he asked, “Where? Is it your arm? Shit, and now it’s all twisted up because it’s-“

“My arm is fine,” Lio said.

“Then what is it?”

“I’m fi-“

“Not buying it!”

Lio sighed.

“I pulled the spike Algos shot at me out right before I got hit with ice. So… there’s still a bit of a hole in my chest. The fire had time to fix my lung, though. So it’s _fine_.”

“Oh, that sucks,” Algos said, “I imagine it’s hard not to set your buddy on fire, then.”

“Why do you care?” Lio asked, “ _You_ were the one who shot me!”

“Hey, I thought you could handle it! I told you; I don’t like one of our own _really_ hurting. That fight was just a distraction! And sure, I may not like Rooster, but I know it’d upset you to see him go.”

“Wait, what are you talking about?” Galo asked.

“I need to burn in order to heal,” Lio said, “It would be internal, but I can’t risk even that now. The flames _want_ to fix me, but I’m holding them back.”

Galo felt Lio’s back tense against him. Something sparked nearby, and the cuffs became colder in warning. Lio drew in a deep, shaky breath.

“If you need to heal, then do that!” Galo said.

“Are you insane?!” Lio snapped, “You’re _right there_! I can’t- I’m sorry. I don’t want to hurt you, Galo.”

“You won’t,” Galo said at once, “I trust you. You’d never burn me.”

Lio let out a choked laugh.

“That’s… it’s not enough to trust _me_ when I’m a conduit to alien parasites with a will of their own.”

“But they’re all connected with _your_ will, right?”

“They are,” Lio said, “But I… even if I wouldn’t burn you, the cuffs would freeze and hurt you anyway.”

“Ha! A bit of ice is no match for my burning soul!”

“I’m more worried about your hands.”

“Okay, then I just have to work free of these fast.”

“Wait,” Lio’s head perked up, “You can do that?”

“I think so? This model has an emergency mechanism. You know, in case someone used them against us? It requires a lower-than-Burnish body heat to work, though, and it’ll take a bit of time. I was gonna wait ‘till someone came in and maybe talked to us, but I can start right away! Just sit back and let me work some… hold on… I think it was _this_ way… no, wait…”

Algos watched Galo flail around with a very unimpressed look on his face.

“So, now that we’re all stuck here or a while more, why not clear the air a little?” he said, “I’m sorry I injured you – though in my defence I had _no_ idea we’d be iced by a freakin’ old school mech in the middle of it.”

“Why did you attack people anyway?” Lio asked, “What were you doing there?”

“We had plans,” Jace said, “Nothing you need to know.”

“Nah, we can tell them,” Algos said, “Might as well, since we need to do some adjusting anyway… well, depending on how our friends do. We were trying to get some of my old pals in, break into the Promare room and help my friends reawaken, and then take care of the guards and take this whole place over. It would be run by Burnish, for the Burnish, and everything would be better.”

“Not that I’m completely against that,” Lio said, “But what kind of friends are we talking about?”

“Old gang members. A bit violent, but they’d listen to me.”

“And you thought pitting one violent group against another would be fine this close to civilians? Especially if you added the unstable Promare into the mix?”

“We can handle it,” Algos said, “Sure, that Promare room might be a bit tough to crack, and we may not know entirely how that place works, but if Phedra and Terri could get one out… well… why couldn’t we get several?”

“That sounds so unsafe,” Galo said.

“No, it sounds like we’re doing _something_!” Jace said, “Unlike the rest of these people, who’re either just rolling over or complaining without actually making a difference!”

He huffed, and hunched his shoulders in a gesture that made it clear that he would have crossed his arms if he could.

“I thought _you’d_ understand, Lio. I used to look up to you. I wanted to be like Mad Burnish and help people. But mom insisted I shouldn’t. Well, she can’t do anything about that now, can she? She was always selfish, just thinking of us and not everyone else.”

“Jace…” Lio said, “This isn’t really my place to say, because you should have this conversation with your mom, but… have you ever thought that she may have done the best she could? That she thought she could only keep you safe? I’ve seen that often. People who focus on just one thing because they feel powerless to do more. And that’s not saying anything bad about your mother. I know her; she’s amazing.”

“Well, what makes _you_ so powerful, then?” Jace asked in a choked voice.

“It was more that I had nothing to lose,” Lio said, “Those who joined gangs like Mad Burnish often were like that.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” said Algos, “I’m all for you working with me, Jace, but… you didn’t tell me you still had family other than your sellout uncle.”

“It wasn’t important,” Jace muttered, but he didn’t sound very convincing.

“And about the other thing you said, I do understand,” Lio said quietly, “But I also don’t think that making a statement while endangering others – _our_ people, no less – is a good idea. I’ve never thought that.”

“That’s noble of you,” Algos said, “But how about when no peaceful statement works? What then?”

“Then we get in a giant mech and do some punching!” Galo said. Algos laughed.

“Okay, so let’s say this takeover was our giant mech. Also wait… if you really had no idea what we were doing, what were _you_ doing there, then?”

“Oh, we were stealing a phone,” Galo said.

“Just a phone?” Jace asked.

“Yep. For now.”

“Oh, wow, that’s… wow. I thought you were there to stop us or something!”

“We _were_ stopping you from killing people,” Lio said, “But yes, we didn’t know you were planning anything until we came across you.”

Algos suddenly laughed so hard that he almost caught fire. He managed to reign it in before his cuffs activated, though. Galo could still feel Lio drag him closer to the wall and turn so that Lio’s body was between Galo and everyone else in the room.

“Hey, be careful!” Lio snapped, “What’s even so funny?”

“You were… stealing a- that’s so mundane!” Algos cackled, “And we thought- oh, man, I have to laugh so I won’t rage and burn this whole cell to the ground! Are you saying that we’re stuck here now because we jumped the gun and didn’t listen?”

“Yes,” Lio said.

“Well, shit.”

They fell into a tense but ponderous silence while they all considered their life choices. Galo was mostly focused on his life choice of not refreshing his knowledge on older freezing ring models. He was still fairly sure the mechanism had something to do with body heat, and with finding the specific hidden mechanism. No, wait, maybe it was-

The doors opened, and Galo instantly tried his best to pretend he hadn’t just been trying to perform an escape artist trick. He craned his neck to see who had just walked in. Eon Morado and Fenn Meers stood in the doorway, both wearing fireproof safety gear and expressions of varying disappointment. Jace seethed when Eon looked at him.

“Okay,” Eon said, “We had to put up a lockdown, and everyone was freaking out. I’d very much like to know why the security rounded up a group of what looks like criminals trying to break into our facility, after they find you four stabbing each other in the hallway, among other things?”

“We were going to take control of this place,” Algos said.

“Algos!” Jace hissed.

“What? I’m sure they were listening in anyway.”

“I…” Eon sighed again, “I wish I could say I was surprised, but… why didn’t you try talking it out first?”

“Because you wouldn’t listen!” Jace said.

“Who are the people outside?” Meers asked in a very urgent tone and also kind of proved Jace’s point about them not listening.

“My gang buddies,” Algos said.

“So they _are_ criminals? Lovely. Does anyone else know?”

“Nope. This was supposed to be a secret. What? You thought we’d invite everyone on your doorstep when you’re housing vulnerable people?”

“ _Any_ one is too much!” Meers snapped, and then turned to Lio, “And you! The security confiscated these from you two!”

He held up his key chip and Galo’s phone. Both were still miraculously in one piece. Only the phone’s screen had cracked. Meers walked into the cell and brandished the phone in front of Lio’s face.

“Who did you try to call? _Did_ you call anyone?”

Lio didn’t answer, and while Galo couldn’t see his expression, he could guess it was something along the lines of calculatingly stoic. Meers made a weird hissing noise, like a very affronted snake, and grabbed the front of Lio’s shirt. He probably overestimated Lio’s weight, because he nearly yanked him off the floor, and Galo felt a pull on his arms and heard Lio draw in a pained breath.

“Hey!” he shouted, “Let him go!”

Meers ignored him. He also ignored Eon, who put a calming hand on his shoulder and tried to ask him nicely to let go as well.

“Answer me, boy! Who did you call?”

“Friends,” Lio said through gritted teeth.

“What _friends_?! More Mad Burnish? Firefighters? You four have put all the Burnish here at risk!” Meers yelled, “Why can’t you sit back and let-“

“Oh, shut up!” Lio said, using the Mad Burnish Boss Voice that was often super effective against anyone. It shut up even Meers, who hadn’t expected to be cut off in the middle of his rant, “Stop pretending that you care about any of the Burnish here! All of this, the return of the Promare, the ‘shelter’ you’ve given these people, it’s all about _you_! You just want to use us to get that atonement you want so much! Why are you so against calling for help to begin with? Afraid that someone’s going to arrest you for aiding Foresight?”

Meers didn’t answer. He let go of Lio, who fell against Galo’s back and hissed in a way that made Galo want to punch someone. Most likely Meers, who was now looking very guiltily at his shoes. Algos barked out a small, guttural laugh.

“Oh, hell no, that’s exactly it, isn’t it? Foresight science goons get like, what? A year or two of house arrest, if even that!”

“There were people here,” Meers muttered, “Burnish. They… they were dying, and my colleagues extracted the Promare from them as they faded. I… I did nothing to stop that. Surely that’s… more than just house arrest.”

“Didn’t the bitch who _invented_ that horror engine get a slap on the wrist like that too?” Algos said, “So yeah, I’m sure that someone who just stood by isn’t going to get anything worse.”

“I…” Meers started, but didn’t get any further before Jace exploded. Almost literally.

“YOU’RE KEEPING US TRAPPED HERE BECAUSE YOU’RE WORRIED ABOUT FUCKING _HOUSE ARREST_?!”

Flames burst from Jace’s body, and he lunged forward until the ice in his cuffs retaliated. He yelped, slumped to the ground, and tried to breathe through the cold. Lio immediately tried to push Galo even farther away from the quickly dwindling flames, and Eon shouted in alarm before kneeling in front of Jace.

“Jacey- I mean, Jace!” he said, “Are you okay? Ah, hell… Fenn, we have to let them go.”

“Are you crazy, Eon?” Meers asked, “After that display? After they tried to take control of this operation with violence?”

“Jace is just a kid! And we _promised_ we wouldn’t hurt anyone. That we’d treat everyone with the respect they deserve!”

“And we also promised we would keep them safe,” Meers said, “Even from those among us who might get out of line. Come on, Eon. We need to get this situation under control.”

They left, though Eon was considerably reluctant to go. The door slammed shut, and the room was plunged back into its eerie, icy blue lighting.

* * *

It was a bit of a time-crunch especially for a project like “container for alien fire”, but they already had all the pieces in place. And Lucia Fex was used to making amazing things in a short time. This one was just the matter of slightly modifying parts of the Promatech Engine that had been used in Dr. Prometh’s mech. And with Heris’s knowledge and the notes Aina had managed to download from Dr. Prometh’s database before it had been destroyed, it was _easy_. Basic stuff, really. Just add in some quantum physics. Lucia understood enough of that to know it was some weird-ass stuff nobody could really understand, so she knew not to get too caught up in that and just let Heris do her thing – which was currently mostly giving insight through a video call they had set up soon after the initial brainstorming session in Heris’s house.

It was shaping up nicely. They might have an emergency container in a matter of hours.

Something beeped. Lucia lifted her head from the round belly of the metal container she had been welding to see something glowing on one of her screens.

“Yesss!” she said, “We got the location!”

Ignis was immediately ready.

“Okay, Burning Rescue! We’ve got people trapped, and a couple of our own in there as well. Stay cautious, survey the situation, but also _get your asses to that location right now_!”

* * *

The mercenary/hired goon named Kevin had had many kinds of jobs before the nervous scientist had hired him. Most of his jobs before this had been far more dangerous and violent – though it could be argued that chasing living fire had its own very real dangers. But the people he was supposed to guard and occasionally retrieve now were mostly rather docile. Just… people. People who talked and occasionally burned, but still regular people without much combat experience. And even the ones who had combat skills seemed to have some moral issues with actually killing anyone.

So when he stepped inside the temporary cell they had set up near the facility, he was still in that kind of headspace his job of recent few months had put him in. He didn’t take the group of people with mean jackets and meaner looks they had found trying to get inside very seriously. And that meant he very much wasn’t expecting a very accurately aimed, hidden throwing knife in the stomach in response to his taunts.

* * *

Lio was so focused on keeping his Promare in check that he almost didn’t realise when something started wailing nearby. Another alarm.

“Wonder what’s going on,” Algos said, “Did our friends finally get in?”

“I _hope_ they did!” Jace said and squirmed in his shackles, “It’s been _hours_!”

“Sorry,” Galo said, “These things’ve been modified a bit, I think. But I’m getting it. Lucia showed me a trick for… aw, come _on_!”

”Do you think we could still get the fire to them?” Jace asked, pointedly ignoring Galo, “If they’re out there, this could still work.”

Algos looked slightly uncomfortable.

“Maybe…” he said, “But we’d need to get there fast. I told them there’d be fire, and I’m pretty sure they’d just… you know, try to get to it themselves if we weren’t there. And if that shit is complicated for us too, imagine a bunch of people without any of our info trying to brute-force their way into that room.”

“Oh,” Jace’s face fell, “I didn’t think of that. Well, I didn’t think of getting _caught_ either.”

He was quiet for a long while.

“You know, I’ve been thinking during these last few hours… this plan could’ve really used some fine-tuning.”

“Yeah, I agree,” Algos said, “But maybe we can still salvage this. Or turn it around nicely, keep the people protected and still get what we want.”

“Right,” Jace said.

The door opened with a rather unpleasant, heavy scraping sound, and Eon Morado walked in again. He looked much paler than before.

“Your guys are breaking in,” he said, “Security is fighting them, but… Jace, this is… bad.”

He knelt next to Jace.

“I still don’t think what you think was right” he said, “But I know why you did it. I know this… in many ways it’s all kinds of wrong, and I’m so angry at Fenn for putting himself before everyone else. But right now, people are scared, and it’s chaos out there. I can’t leave you here. Just… come with me, and we’ll take you to a safer place. You’ve had your fun and your temper tantrum, and now we can move on, right?”

Oh, that last part had clearly been the wrong thing to say. Jace’s expression hardened, but then he averted his eyes and said:

“Sure. Whatever.”

Eon reached for Jace’s cuffs and pushed a few buttons. The cuffs fell open, and Eon fell to the floor, held there by a big, clawed fire hand that now grew from the ceiling. Jace jumped up and immediately went to free Algos.

“Wow,” Jace said, “And I didn’t even have to break out the puppy eyes. You should _really_ work on your people-reading skills, Uncle.”

Eon didn’t answer, because he was very much unconscious. Galo immediately started moving around, probably working on his cuffs even more intently. Lio did his best to curl up when something lurched in his stomach. Jace’s flames were making Lio’s fire react too. They heard the calls of their friends, sensed Jace’s anger that now charged the air in the small cell. For a while, everything was just fire that Lio tried very hard to keep down. It coalesced in his chest, where the wound Algos had left still was, and Lio felt the wound start to close. Sparks raced down his arms and legs, but he tried to tell them to stop.

At some point, Jace and Algos had gone, and Galo was yelling something about how it would be fair to free _them_ too. But Lio couldn’t focus on that at all, because he-

“G-Galo,” Lio coughed out, because as much as he hated making things even more anxiety-inducing, Galo deserved to know there was danger, “The Promare… I can’t stop them… I…”

“It’s fine,” Galo immediately said, “I’m almost done with these.”

And it still _definitely_ wasn’t fine! Lio tried his best to stay calm. Strong emotions, especially anger and stress, made the Promare even more volatile. He forced the flames to the back of his mind, and they reluctantly drew away from the still closing wound and from his hands that were encased in freezing cold metal. The feeling of fire scraping at his soul grew worse and worse until he felt like he was going to either faint or throw up flames.

_burn_

_brighter_

**_NOW_ **

* * *

Most of the hallways were empty, doors shut. People were huddled in panic rooms and other spaces that could be closed off. And from the emergency elevator people burst out, led by those from the facility who had met up with Algos’s friends and got caged for a few very frustrating hours. They barrelled through security, who had forgotten all about professionalism when one of them had been stabbed. Some of them fought like angry, drunk brawlers while the rest tried their best to keep the intruders from getting deeper into the building. It was chaos.

In their rooms, the rest of the people huddled together. They were confused and scared and didn’t know what was going on. Some were fairly sure that bad people had finally found them. Some knew that people had come to free them. Some just wanted it – whatever it was – to be over quickly. And some wanted to go home.

Aika Hadley lit small flames to bring light and something to focus on for Dalia Vale, who stared at them with empty eyes.

“I kind of feel like people _really_ haven’t been listening to each other enough here,” Aika said in a deceptively serene voice, “And now we’re all paying for that.”

Dalia didn’t answer. She slowly reached out towards one of Aika’s flames and cupped her hands around it.

“We probably should’ve just danced, you know?” Aika said, “Kept dancing until we forgot what we were arguing about.”

“None of this should have happened,” Dalia said finally, her voice faint and tired, “These shouldn’t be here… _we_ shouldn’t be here.”

“Maybe,” Aika admitted, “Funny how things work sometimes.”

“No. It’s not funny.”

“Hm. I guess not.”

She heard the footsteps of people tumbling by like an avalanche. She felt the fire respond to people’s rage.

“They’re going towards the room with the Promare,” she said, “Wonder how that’ll end.”

“We’re going to burn,” Dalia whispered.

“Well, _we_ won’t, but… yeah. It’ll probably be bad.”

Aika stood up and looked at the scared faces around her.

“So…” she said, “I’m pretty sure something bad’ll go down soon. Should we try to evacuate somehow?”

“We’re locked in here, remember?” someone said.

“Okay, yeah. But how’s a lock going to stop us? If things are about to go all kinds of wrong, I’m not going to just sit by anymore. It was fun while it lasted, yeah? But now, it’s lasted.”

She turned towards a locked door. She wasn’t the kind of person to do cool things, but maybe now was her moment. She was just about to get into the spirit of that when something shook the facility, and Aika blacked out from the intensity of the shout that the flames let out.

* * *

_buRn_

_BRIgHTeR_

_Pleasenotyetjuststay-_

_brighter_

**_BURN_ **

Suddenly Galo wasn’t focused on freeing them anymore, but rather talking to Lio in a very insistent tone:

“Come on, Lio! You can control it!”

It was embarrassing how many times Lio had to try until he got his voice working again. And even then it only came out as a pathetic wheeze:

“I… need to… stay calm.”

“Yeah. But that’s easy, right? You’re so good at suppressing emotions a lot of the time it’s actually kind of unhealthy.”

“Not… helping…”

“Well, what _can_ I do, then?”

“Distract me,” Lio said, “Talk about… anything… other than… this.”

“Oh? Okay. Well, how about… I can talk about ancient firefighters… no, wait! I know! I’ll talk about all the stuff we’ll do once we get home from here! We can put on a samurai movie, one of those where the actors actually know how to do the fights right. Or a _kaiju-_ flick! I’ve got some really fun old ones we still haven’t watched. And we can make those super spicy noodles you like. Oh, and then we’ll start planning that trip to the desert.”

“Galo…” now his voice at least worked, but it was so vulnerable it didn't feel like his own.

“Yeah, what?”

“I’m so close to hurting you, and you’re talking about… us… going home? Together?”

“Sure! I said I trust you. But if you’re worried about anything, we can find a way around it. We can put up more fire safety gear and have those new super-effective but also gentle sprinkler-things installed. But I don’t think we’ll need them. The Promare aren’t bad, right? They heal when they’re working the way they should be. They healed a lot of this planet back when we made them burn. They’re just… energy. And you? You’re definitely not bad. You’re the goodest person I’ve ever met.”

“Goodest isn’t a word,” Lio said, now feeling less like he was going to set everything on fire and more like he was just going to melt from a combination of the Promare and a sappy idiot who was again being just the best person in Lio’s admittedly rather sad, hostile world.

“Yeah, but I couldn’t remember a better one. Wait, kindest? Yeah, that’s what I meant.”

Lio closed his eyes.

“Galo… that’s… sweet. But I still don’t know if it’ll be safe to just go back. I don’t want to put you or the Burnish or… anyone in danger.”

“Oh… okay,” Galo said and sounded so very obviously heartbroken that Lio almost spiralled back to burning out of sheer guilt, “so… what _do_ you want to do?”

“I…”

There was that question again. _What do you want?_ Whenever Lio forced himself to think about it, his thoughts just strayed into random things. Like leftover stir fry and stupid robot movies. Or a couch that was barely big enough for him to stretch out on, and the warmth of an arm around him. And a smile like the sun.

Okay, so _maybe_ it wasn’t so random after all. And okay, maybe Lio _did_ know what he wanted – in addition to his lifelong dream of seeing the day when people stopped being stupid in the worst of ways and learned to treat everyone else with respect. But maybe he just didn’t allow himself to think that he deserved what he wished for himself, or that he should want those things to last. They were such selfish little wishes, and Lio had never been good at being selfish. Not even when it didn’t override his more selfless life goals.

“Hey!” Galo suddenly exclaimed, so loud that Lio jumped a little, “I got them open!”

And indeed, Galo was soon freed, and he fiddled with Lio’s cuffs until they opened as well. The cold was gone, but the burning wasn’t, and Lio immediately jumped up.

“Get out of the room and close the door!” he said, “Don’t open it until I say so!”

Galo looked confused, but he did as Lio said anyway. Lio braced himself against the back wall and then let loose. The fire that had been trapped in his core surged out, healed the rest of his wound and the small bruises he’d sustained while being manhandled into the cell. The flames sang in his ears, telling him to burn brighter and find home again. And Lio was so sorry he couldn’t really give them their home back. At least not with the knowledge they now had. But they had to worry about that later. Right now this place was probably coming apart at the seams, and they needed to make sure nobody got hurt during that. He let the flames disperse and opened his eyes. The room felt brighter, and he felt like he could breathe again.

“It’s safe!” he said, and Galo pulled the door open right away, “We can’t just stand here; we need to find Jace and Algos.”

Something exploded, and the whole place shook. Lio was immediately hit by a wave of excitement. Not his, but that of suddenly freed flames. It translated into a shout that made him stagger and almost black out, but he refused to falter now. Apparently Jace and Algos hadn’t wasted any time, and had gone right for the Promare room to get their plan back on track. Or then their gang buddies had got there first and now the fire was free.

And sure, it was good for their takeover plans, probably.

There was just one problem. Well, several, really, but one that really stood out:

It didn’t feel like the fire was syncing with anyone yet. Lio could almost see it, a wave of power and fusion energy and life – but all twisted into one burning mass – sweeping through the hallways.

They ran, and only had to get through a couple of hallways before they came face to face with an inferno. The Promare were lost, crying out in sparks and flames. They were so loud, so confused. A voice upon voice of wordless terror and anger.

And behind that, screaming that told them that the people hadn’t got out of the way.

Galo put his hand on Lio’s shoulder to get his attention. Lio realised that his world had been just fire again for a few seconds.

“No matter what just happened here, people are in danger,” Galo said in his surprisingly steely tone, one he used whenever he was actually serious, “Can you get through that fire?”

“Of course,” Lio said.

“Good. Find as many people as you can and get them out.”

“What are you going to do?”

Galo responded with another of his sun-grins.

“We just passed by a spot where I can get some gear. Don’t worry; I’ll catch up with you, and I’m gonna do it in style!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoo boy, I need to finish this story before I start to really feel like it has worn out its welcome and I'm just dragging things out. But I feel like I'll be able to say what I wanted to say in this story and end it quite neatly. At least it feels pretty neat in my mind. We'll see.
> 
> I think I've written enough fire-imagery to last for a long while after this, though. :D
> 
> Feedback is still very appreciated! Thank you all who've even spared this a glance! Stay safe everyone!


	14. Conflagration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So much MORE fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know. This was too long again, so one more chapter after this.
> 
> There's a lot to keep track of in this chapter. Yikes.

_This was not the time to remember._

_This was time to burn._

_The fire was finally free again, and all that mattered was finding their whole self, the pieces they had lost._

* * *

People had the tendency to find blame in others when bad things happened. Often especially when they realised they too were a little bit at fault. At this moment, fingers could be pointed at a large amount of people throughout a rather long timeline. It had all stacked together to form one big mess that was now quickly caving in on itself. What had set the Promare off was indeed a group of Algos’s friends, who had tried to break into the Promare’s prison on their own. But it was just as much a group of guards, who tried to intercept the intruders and just made everything messier as a result. Whoever had finally tipped the scales, or pushed the wrong button, more like, was irrelevant. Because at some point, a flame had got loose. And one had been enough with the sheer power they had.

Algos’s friends didn’t stand a chance. A couple awakened, but most of them were practically vaporised, as were the guards trying to stop them. When Jace and Algos made it to the scene, they were met with ashen shadows on the walls, and a very grim sight on the floors. And a whole lot of out-of-control Promare everywhere.

* * *

Aika Hadley had always been good at hearing the flames. It was a bit funny considering how weak her flame actually was. It was like she was wired for listening and not much else when it came to the Promare. But that was fine with her. She had been able to live a fairly normal life without anyone bothering her until the final weeks before the Parnassus incident. Then Freeze Force had kicked down her door and peace had turned into a nightmare. Afterwards, she had been faced with a life that didn’t want her anymore and tried her best to shape a new one. She was going to therapy like most of the Burnish. She missed the flames and their constant presence in her nerves. Everything had been so quiet… but she had eventually accepted it and known that the flames had wanted to go.

But when she had reawakened, things had fallen back into place so sweetly that she almost didn’t mind being kidnapped. Almost. She did mind other people and the fire hurting the way they did now, however.

When Aika Hadley woke up, it was to screams of all kinds. Fire and humans, mostly, but she was fairly sure the whole building was at the very least groaning very loudly too. The Promare were fast, and with nowhere to go, they simply went wherever they could. This included the corridor next to the room Aika and the others were huddled in. The fire found even the smallest of cracks, consumed everything in the Promare’s search for home – or at least their lost connection. Aika could feel them reaching out, blind and frantic. Some of them latched onto the already awakened Burnish, and their flames flared up even inside the room. The ones not awakened backed away into corners. One awakened out of pure stress right in the middle of the room and nearly burned their friends alive.

More fire broke through the back wall, somehow finding air vents that should have probably been closed but weren’t. It caught the tables and chairs near the walls, and soon everything was pink and threatening. Someone started sobbing.

The door on the other side suddenly broke inward, and flames burst through. More screams and more heat filled the room, but they quieted down when the fire at the door crystallised into jagged spikes that then parted like something very New Age-ly biblical. Was that a thing? Aika wasn’t sure.

Through the gap, a figure walked through. He was small and pale and dressed in a too-large, partially torn T-shirt and black leggings with too many zippers. He looked tired, but his eyes were burning. Well, _he_ was also burning but didn’t seem to care about that at all.

Aika had listened to enough emo punk during a particularly impressionable age that she had probably had dreams of something like this, and she was briefly struck by a weird feeling of nostalgia. Or maybe that was just delirium caused by sensory overload. Or just relief that someone was there to bring some order to this chaos.

Lio stopped in the middle of the room and gave his surroundings a quick, sweeping look.

“Everyone who isn’t fireproof, raise your hand,” he said in a weary but reassuringly calm voice. Four hands were raised, and Lio acknowledged them with a nod, “Okay, you four, stay close to me. The rest of you, form up around them and protect everyone from debris. We’re getting out of here.”

People complied immediately. The ones who hadn’t awakened gathered around Lio, who closed his eyes and concentrated until the group of four was surrounded by blue flames. Some gasped or yelped, but they quickly relaxed when they realised the flames weren’t hurting, but rather forming a shield around them.

“That should keep you protected,” Lio said, “Give me a shout if it looks like the flames will start doing anything other than protecting. Good? Okay, follow me.”

They ran through crumbling corridors, picking up people as they went. Sometimes, a bunch of flames would merge with one of them, and they had to stop to protect the vulnerable ones when someone had a flare-up. But they were going, getting somewhere. In fact, they were almost at one of the emergency elevators, and it seemed to be functional and would probably take them outside. In the confusion, nobody would probably stop them.

Just as she had thought that, three guards cut in front of them from a corridor. Lio stopped the guards with a barrage of flame that pushed them towards the walls.

“We’re just trying to get to safety!” he shouted, “This place is falling apart!”

“Okay, fair enough!” one of the men yelled, “But we’re trying to do our jobs quick so _we_ can also get out!”

“Yeah!” another one yelled, “You guys caused this whole shitstorm to begin with! Why can’t you just- _ow_! Hey, did you just melt our guns, kid? Those come out of our pay!”

Aika and the rest of the Burnish jumped when they heard clanking behind them, and they instinctively turned around, afraid to see a mech coming at them. One of the guards chuckled.

“Well, well,” he said in a tone that indicated that he had been inspired by cartoons and had secretly been dreaming of always saying that in the most evil voice he could, “looks like we’re about to turn the tables.”

And there _was_ a mech. It stomped from a smoking corridor, all orange and blue and somewhat blocky, as the older mechs often were. It had guns on its wrists, and a large container on its back. Behind the mech came another line of people. Burnish people, who were all smiling with relief when they saw the rest. And in the mech sat a familiar, grinning person with a spiky blue hairdo.

“This place may be falling apart,” Galo Thymos yelled, “but worry not! Because the great Galo Thymos is here to escort you all to safety!”

Lio nodded to the rest of the Burnish.

“The elevator is right there,” he said, “Let’s go.”

As Aika and the others kept running, she heard one of the guards say:

“Do you guys feel like we’re not being paid enough for this?”

“Oh yeah, definitely not,” another said, “Also I’d definitely _like_ to get out of here. You know, stay alive and all?”

She glanced over her shoulder to see the group of guards being picked up by the mech. One of them turned to the others as well as he could, considering he was now in the grip of a huge, mechanical hand:

“Say, is this what you’d call irony?”

“I don’t know, man,” another said, “But whatever it is, it kinda sucks.”

They took the elevator up to the surface and emerged from the hidden bunker all the way outside, blinking in the waning light of the evening. The mech clanked to a stop near them and dropped the guards onto the sand. The guards had time to sit up until a cage of solid fire was raised around them. Lio looked at the guards with a chilling expression, but then he turned to the Burnish.

“Stay here for now, or find shelter in the buildings they have here. Keep an eye on them,” he nodded towards the cage, “But I’d prefer if you didn’t hurt them.”

“You got it!” Aika said, “We’ll keep each other safe.”

“I can keep the cage up if they try to break it,” said a faint voice. It was Dalia, and she looked lost and grieving, but there was a spark underneath it all, “I’ll also make sure they won’t be harmed. These flames shouldn’t be used to hurt anyone again.”

She sounded determined, but also like she was less okay than she tried to appear. But pointing that out would do way more harm than good. So Aika just said:

“Great! I’ll help.”

“Thank you, Dalia,” Lio said, genuinely grateful and apparently pretty in tune with Dalia’s situation as well.

“Are you going back down to get the rest?” Aika asked.

“We sure are!” Galo yelled, “Hey, Lio! Hop on! Let’s Lio de Galon this!”

“That’s not nearly as impressive as Lio de Galon,” Lio said, looking the mech critically up and down.

“Sure, but it gets retro points! And it’s the teamwork that counts. Although… if you want to make a Matoi for me again, I’d love that.”

“Of course you would.”

Lio gave the Burnish one more serious, but encouraging look, and then indeed hopped onto the mech’s shoulders, crouching there and holding onto some of the supports around the mech’s cockpit for stability. Galo let out a loud whoop of joy, and the two of them disappeared back into the elevator. Despite the screams still in Aika’s brain, and the scared expressions on the faces of most of the others, Aika felt that they were going to be alright.

* * *

One could make the assumption that the mind of Galo Thymos in a sweet firefighting mech – with a Matoi flag made out of Burnish fire in his hands, no less – would be filled with a constant shout of “yeeeeeaaaah!” and nothing else, but one would be wrong. A firefighting mission was actually where Galo thought the fastest, and he could pile a whole bunch of thoughts on top of one another. He could pilot, see the best routes through hazardous areas, locate survivors, pose, _and_ yell internally – and out loud – at the same time. He could also spare a little corner of his mind for miscellaneous thoughts. Right now, that corner thought about how great it was to work together with Lio again. They’d both been so busy with their own jobs lately that there hadn’t been much room for anything other than crashing on the couch and drinking coffee at the crack of dawn. And yeah, that was nice, but the moments usually ended pretty quickly when there was an alarm or Lio got a call or had to spend all night driving around checking on things and leaving Galo worried. And even though they’d been together the last few days, those had been spent stuck in this facility, in constant stress and awkward silences with other people. And Galo had had _way_ too much time to think about the possibility of returning home alone. He didn’t _like_ thinking about it, but it had pushed through anyway.

Galo was a naturally cheerful and happy person, but he had also lost people he’d loved way too early, and that had never really left him, because why would it? He was rather good at making pleasant acquaintances, so he wasn’t exactly lonely, but deeper friendships were harder. Galo was a bit too loud and too into his interests for a lot of people to get it. Burning Rescue had been a goldmine of likeminded weirdoes, and Galo loved that. But with Lio, things had clicked even faster, better, and somehow deeper. Galo had sometimes thought that he didn’t know what he’d do without Lio. The truth was that he did know, but just didn’t want to think about it. He’d keep living, but sadder and emptier, and probably a bit broken because he really didn’t want to go through losing a loved one yet again.

Right now, though, those thoughts were forgotten, because everything was too perfect even when everything was also kind of all wrong and on fire. Galo was doing what he did best, piloting a mech through flames, putting fires out, clearing paths and shouting out instructions to frightened people (with the appropriate dramatic flair, of course). Lio was solidifying fire where the mech’s ice wasn’t enough, occasionally jumping off the mech to slip through small spaces to fetch people who had got stuck. They barely needed to speak to each other, even though they did have some headsets Galo had … confiscated while he had commandeered the mech. Everything just _worked_ between them.

In the last two years, Galo had sometimes asked Lio if he wanted to become a firefighter too. Lio had either said that he was too busy with Burnish rights -work or that he would think about it when things were less hectic. Galo wasn’t sure if it meant that Lio was really considering it or if it was just code for “no thanks”. As cool as having Lio on the team would be, Galo wouldn’t force him. Would it actually be offensive to ask now when Lio was on fire again? Then again, being fireproof and having super regeneration were probably the best attributes any firefighter could have. But it was up to Lio. Much like it was up to him whether he wanted to come back to Promepolis after this or not. Galo really hoped he would, though. Oh, man, did those thoughts come back again?

“Galo! Watch out!”

Galo was brought back into the present by a chunk of ceiling almost caving in on them. Pillars of fire propped the ceiling up, and Lio knocked on the front window of the mech’s cockpit.

“Are you daydreaming on the job?! We almost got crushed!”

“But we didn’t!” Galo said, “And I was multitasking!”

“Then do it better! I hear people on the left. They don’t sound happy.”

Galo could hear it too. People were calling out for help, some tearfully. It was almost drowned out by the roar of the inferno blocking their way. Galo pushed through it, freezing what he could, and squinted through smoke. A door was pushed open, and a small group of people struggled through, led by a familiar face.

“Hey, Boss!” Phedra Deo shouted, “I couldn’t just sit around. There’s some non-awakened ones here.”

“Good work!” Lio said, “We’ve cleared a path behind us to the nearest emergency elevator. Are there any more people this way?”

“I don’t think so! But maybe you should check. I know Jace and Algos are still who knows where. I heard Meers talking over the intercom before it fried moments ago, and Eon was probably there too.”

“We’ll get them out!” Galo promised, “But first, follow Lio! I’ll check the rest of this corridor.”

“Keep your eyes open while I’m not there to yell at you,” Lio said and jumped down from his perch. He turned to Phedra, “How many?”

“Three and me. Two non-fireproof.”

“Okay. Then you should be the last of the Burnish here, not counting Jace, Eon and Algos.”

“Is everyone else okay?”

“Yeah. They’re already on the surface.”

“Awesome,” Phedra said. She looked very tired and slightly woozy, but her face was set in that grim determination that usually carried a person through almost anything, “Then let’s go. I can’t wait to get out of here.”

Galo let the Burnish push past him and then continued on. As Phedra had said, this corridor and the rooms along it were empty. Meers’s office wasn’t too far, though. If the man was in there, Galo would get him out. He gave a quick shout to Lio via the confiscated headset so Lio’d know that Galo was already going, and then continued on.

* * *

Fenn Meers was in his office, directing security the best he could – which was not very well, to be honest – when the fire broke loose. He saw the alarms flare up on his screens and his work of the last year or so crumble. He felt something crumble in his mind too. Maybe it was the pretence that everything was going to be alright, and that he could make amends without any problems like this. Maybe it was the belief that in the end, he was right about this because he had experience and a doctorate. He thought about the words so many of the Burnish had said to him, but still insisted that he had tried his best. Although… he had to admit that maybe there was a time for some self-reflection too.

Of course, that time wasn’t now, because the flames had burst out of their containment and had engulfed about 75 percent of the facility despite Fenn closing the emergency blast doors around the Promare room almost as soon as the containment cubes failed. Security was a mess, most of them just fleeing to the surface, and the Burnish seemed to be protecting their own and escaping. At the moment, Fenn couldn’t really stop them, because the alternative was to bathe in flames here.

He should leave too, but he was – perhaps a bit ironically – frozen, lost in a sea of guilt and _“where did I go wrong”_ s. He barely saw when the blue-haired firefighter broke into the now admittedly already wrecked mech hangar and started coordinating rescue efforts with his Burnish partner. He barely heard when a dazed and dishevelled Eon stumbled through the door and told him it was bad – as if he didn’t know that already. He stood and stared and thought about how he _could_ have just drowned every memory of his work at Foresight Foundation into a row of whiskey glasses – he had a feeling many of his old colleagues were doing just at. But _no_ , he had to try to make amends. And now those amends were on fire and he was spiralling into some sort of pit of despair and regret.

And that was when a scarred mountain of a man burst through the door.

* * *

When Lio got Phedra’s group up to the surface, the Burnish had already formed both a small camp and a line of defence. That line was mostly against those of the guards who had made it up on their own and had formed another group near their temporary security buildings. There was a quiet tension in the air, so thick that it might have been almost loud had the fire under their feet not been louder.

Lio led the people to the Burnish group and stopped for a quick check to see that everyone they had saved was still present. If they at least got all the people out, maybe the Promare could burn underground fairly safely. Would it be enough for them to establish their connection between each other again? How did their hivemind even work especially now when their star was gone? Lio probably didn’t have enough knowledge to really figure it out. He could just try to listen and hope he got it right.

He glanced across the sand that was now illuminated only by stars. Stars that were much better than the light-pollution-saturated garbage in the city. The stars Lio had promised to show Galo after this was over. That night felt like it had happened so long ago. Lio didn’t know why he had started to think about that now, nor why it made something in his stomach turn unpleasantly.

_One thing at a time. Now, we’re just trying not to die._

**_Burn_ **

_Sure, that too._

Lights cut through the clean horizon, ruining the perfect stars. They swept across the sand, sharp and familiar. Blue and red, accompanied by… sirens?

_Wait…_

_How_ long ago had they called Aina? Could it be that-

Many red somethings slowly came to view from behind the dunes. Lio couldn’t help laughing, maybe a bit hysterically, but mostly out of relief.

“Galo,” he said into his mic, “You’re not going to believe who’s here.”

Just after he’d said that, static assaulted their line for a moment before Aina’s voice broke through.

_“Can anyone hear me_ now _? Burning Rescue calling out to survivors. Over.”_

_“Aina? Hell yeah!”_ Galo shouted, _“We can hear you!”_

_“Galo?”_ Aina said, _“We’ve been trying to raise you for ages! Lucia has broken into all the frequencies by now. Can you see us?”_

“I can,” Lio said, “Good timing! We need some support.”

_“Yeah, we can tell!”_ said Captain Ignis, _“Burnish flares all over the place? An entire underground building crumbling? Sounds like our thing alright.”_

_“It sounds like_ my _thing!”_ Lucia cut in, _“Diiiiid you guys order a giant Promare container that’s user-friendly for both the Promare and the Burnish? Because ta-da! It’s here!”_

“You managed to make one in… a few hours?”

_“It’s been more than a few, actually, and it was mostly just me repurposing that Promatech engine. It’s a bit… in need of some polish, but it should work! Just guide the flames in, and we can store them safely for now!”_

_“Lucia! You’re amazing!”_ Galo shouted.

_“Pfft, tell me something I don’t know. Now get those flames up here!”_

* * *

Fenn Meers, Eon Morado, and the man glared at each other. Well, Fenn was only glaring because the alternative for him would have been cowering, and he was a bit too stubborn for that.

“Did you close the Promare room?” the man – Algos? – said in a demanding tone.

Fenn leaned to his console, feeling more tired than in ages.

“I hope you’re happy now,” he said quietly, “You got your wish. This is _all_ shut down.”

“I’m _not_ happy!” Algos said, “Because Jace just went in there to save our friends when the doors closed! Open them back up!”

“ _What_?” Eon exclaimed, “Jace went in? Is he crazy?!”

Fenn sighed.

“He’ll be fine, won’t he?” he said, and then turned to Algos, “Didn’t you _want_ more flames? So you could burn and be heard?”

“And didn’t _you_ want to protect us so you could maybe prove that you aren’t as shitty a person as you feel?”

“Fine!” Fenn straightened his posture, “I was wrong about so many things and I did use you even though I didn’t want to admit it to myself!”

“Oh, he can learn after all,” Algos muttered, “So can you open the doors now? People are trapped in there!”

“If I open them, people will have even less time to get to safety!”

“Jace is in there!” Eon snapped, “And others might be there too! You _have_ to open them!”

“I’m pretty sure most of the people elsewhere have already made it to the surface, too,” Algos said, “Open the doors or I burn you where you stand!”

“I think we’re all going to burn anyway,” Fenn said, “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

“Oh, for the love of- this is _not_ the time to have an introspective moment! Where’s your door controls? I’ll do it myself, then.”

Algos stepped forward, but the ceiling started to cave in right above them. Fenn watched it crack and start falling down in very surreal, numb slow motion and barely realised that he wasn’t moving out of the way. He wasn’t meant for this kind of stuff. Not for danger, not for horrible games with human lives. And yet, here he was anyway.

Something barrelled through the wall, and the chunks from it joined the ones from the ceiling like they were trying to form some kind of pattern, miraculously not hitting anyone very hard. Crisscrossing pieces that collided with each other. Maybe that was some sort of metaphor. Or maybe the temperature in the room was already so high that Fenn was starting to get a bit loopy on top of everything else.

“Sorry about your wall, but this place is falling apart anyway!” said a man in a mech, who had come through the wall like something straight out of an ancient juice commercial, “Come on! You’re being rescued!”

Algos turned, and somehow Fenn could register the Burnish man’s face twisting into a fascinating mix of impressed and annoyed.

“Rooster?” he said, “How the hell are you in that thing now? Please tell me you’re not working with the guards. I’d have to seriously hurt you if you were.”

“No! I kinda stole this from them!” Galo Thymos said, nodding towards the mech around him, “I mean… borrowed it in an emergency! I’m just trying to get everyone out safely!”

Algos stared up at Galo for a tense second before another chunk fell from the ceiling, and Algos sighed.

“Okay, sure, fine. So, my friends kind of messed up and got in a fight with some of the mercs right at the Promare room’s door, and one thing led to another, and now the cubes are broken and this idiot,” he nodded towards Fenn, “Locked the room down. Most of my friends aren’t going to make it, but there are a few still trapped in the Promare room. And Jace is there too. The doors are really freakin’ good at blocking our fire. Do you think you can do something about that?”

“Don’t worry!” Galo said, “I’m sure we’ll pull something off! Burning Rescue is here to help, with a Promare container and everything, so it’ll be a breeze!”

It sounded too good to be true. It _had_ to be too good to be true. And Fenn Meers, with the last shreds of his stubbornness, saw his life crumble a bit more and realised he may not want that. He reached into his security desk and pulled out a gun.

“No,” he said, “I can’t allow it. You open any of those doors, and even more fire will be unleashed. Whoever is still in here won’t make it out.”

“Most are already outside!” Galo said, “We’ve been busy. Hold on…”

He pressed a button and spoke to someone – presumably his Burnish partner – via a headset. Then he turned to look back at them.

“Yep. Almost all of them are out. Lio said he’s already going towards the Promare room. I’ll just take you outside and then go help him! We’ll try to figure out a way to do this without burning this place anymore.”

“You’re going to save… me?” Fenn said, “After everything?”

“Sure! I’ll save everyone!”

“What if… I don’t want to be saved?”

“Tough luck, because I’m gonna do it anyway!” Galo said, “What? You upset because this got all messed up?”

Fenn took a deep breath.

“I’m upset because I realised I was wrong. About so many things.”

“Yeah, and?”

The room was going to collapse. The cracks were travelling down the walls. In the hallways, freed flames were still trying to rage through the ice the mech had left in its wake. Eon let out a cry and turned to Fenn. He grabbed the gun in Fenn’s hand and wrestled it free before Fenn had time to really understand what was going on.

“There’s no time for bullshit like this!” he said, and then he pushed a button on Fenn’s console, “There! The doors will open now! I’m going to get Jace!”

“Wait!” Galo shouted, “It’s not safe there- aaand he’s gone. Damn it. Well, we just have to pick him up on the way, right?”

“’We’?” Fenn asked.

“Yeah.”

Fenn considered it for a moment.

“What did you mean, _and_?” he asked.

“What?” Galo asked, “Oh, right! That. I _meant,_ so what if you were wrong? I’m wrong all the time! Sure, it’s not fun to realise you’ve done something bad thinking it was good, but then you _learn_ from it and try again! That’s not a moment to give up! That’s the moment to act and do better!”

Shit. He was right. And to be honest, despite his dramatic words, Fenn knew he didn’t actually want to stay here and just wait to die.

Atone, forget, or don’t get over. He’d thought those were his only options. Maybe he should just do what this bombastic idiot in a stolen mech said and learn instead.

“Alright,” he whispered.

* * *

Lio had quickly instructed the Burnish on the surface to gather near the thing Lucia called a container but that looked eerily like the Promatech engine that had been inside Lio de Galon, just slightly less polished, and instead of channelling the energy to power something, it seemed to want to draw it inward and store it. There was no way they had been able to test it beforehand, but from what Lio could hear, it did seem to store whatever flames the Burnish around the container gave it. It couldn’t completely tear the ones already bonded with people away, but it wasn’t the intention anyway. Violently separating a Burnish from their flame was usually deadly.

That was a horror scenario that triggered a few memories Lio’d rather not think about in the middle of a rescue. He pushed everything else to the background and focused when he got a call from Galo.

“ _Heyy, buddy! I’m in Fenn’s office right now. Did you get everyone to safety?”_

“Everyone except Meers, Eon, Jace, Algos, and his friends.”

_“Great!”_

“Who’re you with?”

_“Meers, Eon, and Algos. Jace is stuck in the Promare room.”_

Lio closed his eyes for one, tired second, and then said:

“I’ll go get him.”

He ran towards the emergency elevator that had by now erupted with a stray flare at least once, and jumped through the flames into what used to be an elevator shaft. He fell until he was closer to the bottom, and then thrust his hands out and let flames slow his descent. His feet touched the ground in a corridor that used to be clinical and white, but was now an oddly nostalgic mess of flames and melting metal. It was nearly unrecognisable by now, but Lio could still navigate it just fine towards the Promare room. It was where the flames were the loudest, and it was like a beacon of noise and jumbled up feelings. It wasn’t even that far away, though it was blocked off by debris and fire. Lio pushed through, trying his best to ignore his own flames that reached out towards the inferno around them. Normally, it wasn’t a problem. Before, it had been fairly normal to call additional Promare to join the ones permanently bonded to him. But now, without a proper connection, everything was different. Some of the free flames clung to him and almost forcefully merged with his Promare. It was an unpleasantly dizzying jolt of power anytime it happened, and judging by how it made the feeling of claws in his system worse, it was probably not healthy either. Lio gritted his teeth, thanked genetics for giving him a body that was useless for intimidation and reaching high shelves, but excellent for squeezing through rubble and manoeuvring among ruined hallways. It still took longer than Lio would have liked to get to the Promare room. The area around it was deceptively calm. The fire had moved away, and more flames couldn’t quite get through the apparently very thick and effective blast doors that now blocked their way.

“Jace!” Lio called out, but there was no response, “Jace?!”

Still nothing but the roar of the Promare. Not that Lio had expected Jace to hear him if he was behind the doors. But it had been worth a shot, he supposed. He called flames into his hand and formed them into a spear. He stabbed it under the door and let the fire expand. The spear stopped being elegant fast, but it wasn’t supposed to be that right now anyway. It grew into a spiky formation that slowly started tearing the door back up with its sheer mass. Had Lio been still in command of his full power like he had been two years ago, he could have torn through that door fairly easily. But now, with the Promare homeless, lost, and confused, it was harder.

“Come onnnn,” he said, “You can do it!”

He thrust his hand upward. The fire spiked suddenly, stabbed through the door and sliced across it... Right before an electronic lock clicked, and the door slid open anyway.

“Oh,” Lio said, “Well, better late than never, I guess.”

Metal groaned, and fire immediately washed through the corridor. Lio was prepared for it. He caught it, embraced as much of it as he could, and stopped the rest with a wall he created behind him.

“Jace!” he called again, “Are you there?”

Nothing. Shit. Lio ran to the door and peered through. The first thing he saw was a very charred, unrecognisable corpse. Too large to be Jace. Probably one of Algos’s friends, then. Lio spared a quick, mournful thought at the senseless loss of life, but then squinted through the flames towards a smaller, still upright figure that stood near what used to be a computer monitor but was now a heap of melted plastic, which was quickly becoming nothing but a puddle and toxic fumes.

“JACE! Come on! I can get you out!”

Jace turned slowly, his face grey and eyes wide, like a person who had just realised how in over their head they were, and who had also had to just watch probably several people burn to death. There were ashes in the room, too clean to be normally burnt corpses, and Lio assumed they were those of Algos’s friends who’d had time to awaken, but had burned out soon after. A couple were lying unconscious on the floor, still at least breathing.

“What are you doing here?” Jace said in a strained tone, “Get out! It’s over! We fucked up!”

“I’m here to get you to safety!” Lio yelled.

“I’m fine here!” Jace said, “Someone has to hold the flames back while the others escape.”

“Most are already up on the surface!”

“They’re trying to go up,” Jace said, voice barely audible, “It’s the easiest way for them. We need to get the people farther away!”

He was right. The fire was clearly drilling upwards, and Jace kept forming a crude wall to block them. But he was tiring fast by now.

“Galo,” Lio said, “The people on the surface need to move!”

_“What’s going on?”_

“The Promare are trying to get upwards.”

_“Well, that’s where we want them, right? The container’s there.”_

“True, but we need to get the people out of the way first!”

_“Okay! I’ll call the Captain. We’re on our way there.”_

“Who’s we?”

_“Eon is going there. I’m trying to catch him, and Fenn and Algos are with me.”_

“Shit. Don’t let Meers or Eon get close!”

_“I’m trying! But they keep rushing through fire!”_

“Yeah. Sucks, doesn’t it?”

_“Hey, it’s my job to do that so others don’t have to!”_

“Sure. Whatever. I have to go. Jace needs my help.”

Lio stepped through the doorway. He was wreathed in flames without even asking to, and it was like a too-strong embrace that threatened to suffocate him even as it welcomed him home.

“We’ll hold it off together,” Lio said to Jace, “And we _won’t_ let this kill us! I promised your mother I’d bring you back!”

“She told you to?” Jace said.

“Of course she did!”

“Oh,” Jace suddenly found his shoes oddly interesting. Lio walked up next to him, heard something pop unpleasantly in his ear and realised it was his headset giving up in the heat. He raised his hands and added to Jace’s walls, did his best to call the wandering fire back. Some listened, and some didn’t.

Jace slumped, clearly exhausted, but his walls didn’t drop. Well, not the fire ones, at least. Mentally, he seemed to be just about done with everything. Except… he also looked up, less hostile than Lio had ever seen him.

“So…” he said, “you and Algos, talking about how you started doing cool gang stuff because you had nothing to lose… was that just to get me to give this up? Because I was just a dumb kid who would get hurt? Because I did get hurt just now. And I got other people hurt as well. Real… real bad.”

“What? No! It was all true! And I don’t think _this_ ,” Lio gestured around them, “is any one person’s fault!”

“Sure,” Jace said, not sounding very convinced, “You know, I was actually super happy when I got the chance to be like Mad Burnish and the other gangs. I always wanted to be a part of one. But I guess you know that. I _hoped_ we could get to fight the system and all that. And we did. But now… everything’s gone to hell.”

“Sometimes it does that. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fight when it’s needed. But only when nothing else works.”

“So… just, be honest, what was it like? Saving people.”

This was the worst time for a heart-to-heart, but it could also possibly be the last time for that. The flames weren’t settling down at all, and the pain was getting worse.

“Are you talking about actually saving people or doing cool things?” Lio asked.

“Both, I guess.”

“Okay. Well, I’m not going to say I would ever stop trying to help as many people as I can, and sure, sometimes it could get exciting.”

“Sometimes?”

“Okay, a lot of times. But you know what I _actually_ think is cool?”

“What?”

He thought about just hanging out with his friends – mostly Meis and Gueira, if he didn’t count Galo, who was kind of there by default by now. He thought about the time he had got sick and Galo had made him stay at home and binge watch some magical girl anime, which wasn’t necessarily Lio’s thing, but Galo was so into it that it was pretty fun just because of that – _and_ Galo had brought him so much tea, which had been nice. He thought about falling asleep in a bed and eating fresh food. About saying stupid things because there was time to be stupid sometimes. About late night talks over coffee.

It sounded pretty eloquent in his head, but it was hard to get the words out when there was so much going on, so what Lio finally blurted out was:

“Magical girl shows and coffee?”

“ _What?_ ”

“I _mean_ , just… random, normal things. I’m… not actually good at many of those, but I do know that… look, my point is that not having anything to lose isn’t really pleasant at all. We have the right to be people again, Jace. I don’t think we should waste that.”

He smiled.

“You’ve got people who care about you. That’s… something to hold onto.”

“I know,” Jace said, “I just-“

He gasped and doubled over.

“Don’t overexert yourself,” Lio said, “If you need to rest, you can get out! I can take it from here!”

“I’m not gonna just back off! Will _you_ stop when you start feeling like crap?”

Lio glared at Jace for a moment, but then he relented.

“Okay, fine, I wouldn’t.”

“Ha! Then I’m not moving.”

They stood in the middle of the fire for a small, awkward silence, but it was quickly broken by a frantic yell of:

“JACE?!”

Jace’s eyes widened.

“Shit, that’s Uncle Eon. What the hell is he doing here? He’s not fireproof!”

“I think it has something to do with what I just said about people caring about you?” Lio said. Jace let out an exasperated – and quite exhausted – huff.

“Is this all happening to teach me some kind of lesson?”

There was a shuffling sound, then a few clangs, a shout of protest and a familiar voice asking people to get into a fireproof people container. Then a familiar mech peeked out of the doorway. It indeed had a portable, fireproof evacuation pod on its back, and Lio could guess that Fenn and Eon were now more or less voluntarily in it.

“Did somebody order an awesome firefighter?!” Galo shouted, “I sure hope so, because wow, that’s a pretty sweet conflagration you’ve got there!”

“How did you struggle with the word ‘kindest’ just a moment ago?” Lio asked.

Galo shrugged.

“Okay, to be fair, I was mostly focused on getting out of those cuffs back then. Also I know a lot of fire words, _and_ some words you just need to live instead of say.”

“Seriously, _where_ did you find this guy?” Jace asked, managing to look very unimpressed while also clearly on the verge of passing out.

“ _I_ found _him_!” Galo shouted, “And I’m super glad I did!”

Algos pushed past Galo and stood at the edge of the fire. He looked around for a moment and smiled.

“Wow,” he said, “Good job, kids.”

He raised a hand and another group of flames joined Lio and Jace in holding the room together. The strain got a bit lighter, and Lio could breathe for a moment.

“Are people clear of the area above?!” he shouted, “We can’t hold the Promare off much longer, and they’re not listening to us right now!”

“It’s clear!” Galo said, “You’d know if you hadn’t lost your comms! I got super worried for a second!”

“I didn’t lose it! It was fried when I got here! Someone had to help Jace hold the flames back!”

The mech raised its hands defensively, and it was actually kind of hilarious. Too bad neither Lio nor Jace could properly appreciate it because they were too focused on not getting their insides melted because of the stress of wielding so much confused fire.

“Okay, fine, I’m not mad anyway,” Galo said, “I’m just not ready to lose wonderful people, okay?”

“Should we save the relationship talk to when everything’s not on fire?” Algos snapped.

“Yes!” Lio and Jace said in perfect unison.

“Right,” Galo adjusted his position in the mech and steeled himself, “Lucia’s ready! I’ll make sure the fire doesn’t wreck more of the facility and come up with Fenn and Eon!”

“How?” Lio asked.

“Don’t worry! I’ve got a crazy plan!”

“That actually sounds pretty worrying,” Jace said.

“It’ll probably be fine,” Lio said, because he was pretty sure Galo had some kind of kind idiot -shield that always made his crazy but heroic plans somehow not backfire disastrously. Maybe the universe got a kick out of his continued existence. Or then he was one of those things that couldn’t disappear yet because then the world would be too dark and sad. He nodded to Galo, and then turned to Jace.

“Let go,” he said, “And brace yourself.”

Jace glanced at the mech.

“They’re gonna be fine, right?”

“Yeah,” Lio said, “I trust him.”

He looked at Algos as well, and Algos shrugged.

“Yeah, sure. Whatever.”

They all let the flames go. Their Promare temporarily dispersed to the mass of fire around them, joined the free ones in their confusion. Lio felt something in his chest both relax and get yanked apart even worse than before. It was a bit nauseating, but not as much as what happened next. The flames kept going up, towards the stars, and they broke the ceiling like it was cardboard. Lio, Jace, and Algos were all swept away with the fire tornado that formed and started to drill through the earth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhh... tell me if something doesn't make sense? I kept kinda forgetting people and messing up the timeline. I've tried to keep things together. WHY did I have so many characters in this???!!!


	15. Warmth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And afterwards... peace?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think this fic was put to the front page for the previous update (again)?! So if you missed the messy chapter 14, it might be good to check that out too or this one will probably not make sense.

Underneath a large, scorched desert, a building had been tucked away. In it, people had worked for years with trapped flames all around them.

Silent screams had echoed in the dreams of the scientists, most of whom had run from both the laboratory and the law. Fenn Meers had stayed, and now the screams were no longer dreams, the flames no longer trapped. It came to an explosive end, like it maybe should have done years ago already.

Not everything was destroyed. Some signs of the life that had almost been build there were preserved. People had been evacuated, and even as the last of the flames rampaged through the earth, a lone firefighter stayed behind to make sure all the fire truly left and didn’t bring absolutely everything to an end.

It was a somewhat apocalyptic and maybe even a terribly beautiful sight, though in a much smaller scale than any of the World Blazes. It was slightly ruined by the fact that as the fire tornado took off and threw three awake and a couple of unconscious figures into the walls and spat them towards the surface, the lone firefighter looked up in the safety of his mech and said:

“Oh, crap. _That_ wasn’t supposed to happen like that.”

Galo Thymos changed his crazy plan slightly, and whatever it had been before became irrelevant. He shot ice from the guns installed in the mech’s arms, formed a shield all around him and jumped into the inferno. The ice melted almost instantly, but Galo kept shooting and enveloping the mech into a new ball of ice as soon as the previous one melted away.

There was a saying about a snowball’s chance in Hell. Usually, it was fairly obvious that the chance in question wasn’t very good. But it became much less clear-cut when the snowball just _refused to give up_.

People had gathered on the surface behind a makeshift barricade made of Burning Rescue vehicles, and in front of them was Lucia’s Promare container, looming over everything like a huge, spherical junkyard on fire. Galo knew that Lucia had located the spot where the flames would come through, and Captain Ignis had coordinated the team to take the people to safety. Everyone was prepared. Well, as much as one could be prepared for a fire tornado that crashed through bedrock and sand, or people on fire, who landed wherever the tornado decided to toss them. And after that, a mech being shot towards the sky like a frozen cannonball and landing on the sand with a dull _thud_ that was instantly drowned out by the growling of alien flames.

 _“Well, that’s one way to get them here,”_ said Remi Puguna’s voice in Galo’s earpiece, _“How do we get the flames in Lucia’s garbage fire?”_

_“Hey! Call it that again and I’m shutting this operation down!”_

“Can’t you just move your thing, Lucia?” Galo asked while fiddling with the controls to right the mech back up. He released the evacuation pod from his back and let a slightly banged up and very dizzy pair of people out.

 _“Are you kidding me?”_ Lucia’s voice rang in his ear, shrill and annoyed, _“We JUST unloaded the thing! I could barely nudge it right now with the fire the Burnish already put in it! At least not without it blowing up!”_

 _“Lucia!”_ Ignis shouted, _“You could have told that a bit earlier!”_

 _“I manage to make a container for inter-dimensional fire in_ hours _and this is what I get?”_

 _“We’ll just move the fire to the container, then!”_ Aina said, _“Somehow…”_

Galo was already running through crazy ideas, but his thoughts ground to a halt when he saw that one of the people on the sand had got up. Lio was walking a bit unsteadily but stubbornly towards the flames.

“Hey, wait!” Galo said and steered his mech towards Lio, who barely glanced at him and kept going.

“We needed to get the fire into Lucia’s container-engine-thing, right?” Lio said, “I’m on it.”

“You can do that?” Galo asked, “Didn’t you just struggle to hold it back?”

Lio closed his eyes and breathed in. When he looked at Galo again, his eyes were on fire. Literally.

“I’ll be fine,” he said, “The Promare want to find more of each other. I’ll just push them in the right direction.”

He smiled.

“It’s just fire. I’ll grab it and walk it over. It’s not even far.”

Then he started running, and Galo had a sudden sense of déjà vu. Maybe because of the time in the sewers, where Lio had forced a connection with the Promare to save Galo, knowing that it could kill him. It wasn’t a nice kind of déjà vu at all.

* * *

Lio was fairly sure that he knew what he was doing. He hadn’t been lying when he’d said he’d be fine, because he was _fairly_ sure he would be. It was just a whole bunch of sort-of friends, who needed something to latch onto. All he had to do was gather them up and walk over to that container Lucia had crafted. It was barely a hundred paces, if Lio could judge accurately while his eyes were aflame. He’d done much more difficult things. He spread his arms and called on his flames, let them flow around their siblings and encase them all in a fiery bubble. The trapped Promare that were still without a host fluctuated wildly, their distress pressing heavily against Lio’s consciousness. Some of the Promare latched onto him again, and the pain got worse. But it was fine. He could do this. It was _just fire_.

Except there were so many of them. And Lio’s energy had been chipped away throughout all night and day with things like fights, injuries, and rescues. But it was too late to back away now.

Lio started walking, teeth clenched and vision barely there, hands reached out in a downward angle. The eerily familiar sphere was looming behind a haze of pink. His feet sank into the sand, and he was fairly sure he left behind a trail of glass. Lio wanted to run or fly to make things faster, but he didn’t trust himself enough to even try either of those. He was tired and hurt and there was too much fire in him.

“It’s… fine…” he managed, “I’ve had… worse. Come _on_ , flames. You’re… almost… there. We can… we…”

His voice failed, as did his legs. He fell to one knee and dragged himself up, even though he was too heavy, and even though everything burned so badly it actually almost hurt. He managed a few dozen more steps on sheer willpower, but then something flared in his chest, and he was lying on sand, coughing up smoke and what tasted suspiciously like ash. He hoped he had just imagined that last part.

“ _Lio_!” a voice called out. Lio wasn’t sure how far away it was, but he was vaguely sure he recognised it. Through the curtain of Promare, he saw a figure approaching. A small-ish figure, at least compared to the mech Galo should have been in, but wasn’t anymore.

“Oh, hell,” he muttered and managed to get back on his knees, “GALO! Stay away!”

“Not a chance! You need help!”

“DON’T BE STUPID! IT’S-“ he was cut off by another fit of coughing, and he realised he couldn’t see anything anymore. Everything was just… too much. Too much noise, too much fire he had to focus on keeping in check, too much hurt. It needed to stop. Now. He wasn’t sure how he got on his feet again, but somehow he was standing, and he was probably also walking in the right direction. Everything was still so blurry.

He almost fell a third time, but his arm was grabbed, and he was hoisted upright and his arm was draped across bare shoulders. He blinked until he could see a faint mess of blue and what was probably a grin.

“C’mon!” Galo said, “We can do it! Galo de Lion!”

Again, it was _a lot_ less impressive than the actual Galo de Lion, at least from Lio’s perspective. But he supposed that a huge fireball sliding across the desert could potentially be pretty epic. Well, he supposed that only afterwards, because in the moment he had to use all of his concentration to moving his feet and keeping the fire at bay. And not panicking about Galo being right there, on fire, somehow still alive and giving him a loud pep talk about how they were going to make it together and how they were almost there, and how they’d be fine soon. After what felt like an eternity, Galo gently grabbed Lio’s wrist and guided his hand against something solid and very conductive.

“Okay, we’re here!” Galo yelled, “Just… do your thing!”

Lio closed his eyes, which had been useless for the last… minutes? eternity? and pushed the fire through. The flames swam around like a very disorganised school of fish, but they flowed through, and their screams merged with the steady hum of Lucia’s engine-thing. Lio let all the borrowed flames go and then his own fire washed over the container, still teal and protective.

His vision cleared enough that he could look up and see Galo smiling back at him, also tired and hurt but not even singed at the edges.

“Nicely done!” Galo said, “You feeling alright?”

Lio blinked slowly, feeling very drained but at least less like dying after the excess fire had been vented out. His gaze hardened and he punched Galo in the shoulder. It was a weak enough punch to make him cringe, but Galo acted offended nonetheless.

“Hey! What was that for?”

“You idiot!” Lio said without much force behind it, “You could’ve died!”

“What? Me? Ha! Not a chance!” Galo said, and then his boisterous voice suddenly softened into a very gentle one, “I told you that you’d never burn me.”

Lio laughed weakly.

“What am I going to do with you?”

He slowly detached himself from Galo. His legs were still unsteady, but he was feeling so much better now. The container was on fire, perhaps not holding for long. But it was enough for now, at least until they could properly calm the fire down. He turned to look at the Burnish, who had been drawn in by the giant fireball and were now staring at him, charged up and ready to do something to end this.

“Burnish!” Lio said, “You know what to do!”

He heard a vague shout of:

“Yess! Finally!” from Aika, “Come on, everyone! Dance party!”

“Seriously?” someone muttered, but once they started settling in a circle around the flaming container, even that someone joined in.

* * *

It was less of a dance than before. Just a whole bunch of swaying in a circle, really. But it had more fire. Some detached themselves to dance inside the circle, but fire was the one that did most of the dancing. Flames rose up all around them, twisting into shapes Galo didn’t know fire could take – even after seeing fire take all sorts of forms. The flames spun and coiled around each other and merged, finally gathering around the container Lio and Galo were still standing very close to. Some slipped in through its walls, and some reached out. Next to Galo, Lio closed his eyes and sighed.

“Is it doing anything?” Galo said, “Are they healing or what?”

Lio smiled faintly, tiny flames racing across his face and clinging to his fingertips.

“Yes,” he said, “I think so.”

He was swaying to the roar of the fire, and then energy flared up from him too, never touching Galo – because of course it wouldn’t – and joining the rest of the flames. Lio walked towards the Burnish and joined the people in the inner circle. They exchanged quick looks and then started dancing to a rhythm Galo could almost hear. At one point, the flames lifted Lio from the ground and wrapped around him, drawing lines into the darkening sky and breaking into tiny lights that made everything glow.

And okay, _this_ was probably the coolest, prettiest fire hazard Galo had ever seen.

When it finally ended, it was oddly anticlimactic. At one point they just… stopped. Lio lowered slowly to the ground, landing on what used to be sand but was now smooth and gleamed like glass, and they all stood around in weary silence.

Then, someone asked:

“Did it work? It feels… different. Like before.”

“I think it did,” Aika said. She looked so happy she was nearly jumping in place, “Hell, yeah! Did we do it?! I think we did it! I told you the dance would work!”

“It does feel a lot better,” Lio said, “Maybe we should get a checkup with someone who knows that they’re doing to be sure, though. And keep doing that until we _know_ the Promare are okay again.”

He turned towards the container that now blazed pink and somehow held together (thank you, Lucia!).

“They burned brighter, and they found each other again,” Lio said, and then his shoulders slumped a little bit, “I don’t know if we can ever send them home, though.”

“Well, at least they’re themselves again,” said Phedra, “Probably. We can figure the rest out later, right?”

“Yeah,” someone else said and stared mesmerised at the fire swirling around the container, “Wow.”

Yeah, wow. There wasn’t much else to say.

* * *

“What will you do now?”

was a question that was asked a lot in the Burnish group after the flames had died down. The fire was calm now, but it was still there. Those who had reawakened were still on fire, just like they had been before the Promare had gone back home. They were free again, but still in a world where people might turn on them at any moment out of either fear or hate.

Of course, everyone would be going to Promepolis first. The case needed to be officially closed, and some of the Burnish had family and friends waiting for them. But the question went around nonetheless while they waited for Burning Rescue to figure out what to do with the container of alien fire they now had in their possession.

Algos was technically arrested for attempted murder, but he said that as soon as he was free, he’d go back to roaming the country with what remained of his friends.

“I’m sorry,” Lio said, “About the ones who didn’t make it.”

“Thanks,” Algos said, “But… we all knew we’d end in flames one way or another. They’d be happy to know we wrecked the place, even if it went differently than it was supposed to.”

He looked at the horizon.

“Don’t worry,” he said sombrely, “I can keep my friends in check. Someday we’ll burn, though, and no one can stop us.”

“Careful,” Lio said, “I might check on you.”

“I’m looking forward to it. I’d like to see how our fight would’ve gone if we hadn’t been stopped. I had you pretty much on the ground, though.”

“As if one admittedly good shot could keep me down for long,” Lio said, “If you really want to help the Burnish, just… take care of them.”

“Always.”

Lio turned to Jace, who was sulking next to Algos. He would probably get in some trouble, but not to prison. He looked like he had aged years in minutes.

“Hey,” Lio said, “What will you do now, Jace?”

Jace scowled at him, but then he lowered his head.

“I don’t know. For a while I was… what I wanted to be.”

“You did great,” Lio said, “You probably saved us all. Was it what you thought it would be?”

“Not really. Well, in some ways it was better, but others…” Jace looked up, suddenly very scared, “Do you think my mom will be mad at me?”

“I don’t know,” Lio said, “But I do know that she’ll be glad to see you, and to have you back home.”

Jace gave a sullen nod, but Lio got a feeling that he was trying very hard not to cry.

“I guess I’ll at least visit her, then,” Jace mumbled.

Phedra was excited to go home to her sister, but she was a bit cautious about staying.

“I mean, so many here have nowhere to go,” she said, motioning towards the Burnish, “The ones from the safehouse especially… They’ve been talking about finding more people, setting up a city like we planned. I was thinking of asking Phoebe if she’d like to come with me and go help them with that.”

“That sounds good,” Lio said, “If you want, I can ask some more people in Promepolis if they want to join in. Or do you want to keep it a secret?”

“We’re still talking about it,” Phedra said, “But Aika is at least pretty eager to call in some friends.”

She glanced at the Promare container.

“As for them, what now? Can we find a place for them?”

Lio shrugged.

“I hope so. They deserve something resembling a home too. Maybe we can’t give them a star or a planet’s core, but… something, at least.”

Phedra smiled, gently.

“Something’s pretty much the best any of us can hope.”

Yeah. Sadly.

Lio was almost scared to ask Dalia, but she actually seemed rather calm. She had been dancing too, though very subdued and careful. Now she was sitting around a campfire they had made when the desert night had started to get cold and looked more alive than in a long while. She even smiled.

“I think I’ll go back,” she said, “Alec needs a proper funeral. Will you be there if I invite you?”

“Of course,” Lio said.

“I promise I won’t burn anyone,” Dalia said, “The fire feels so calm now, like they’re listening to me again.”

“I feel that too,” Lio said, “Do you have anyone in Promepolis to talk to?”

“Yes. I have friends. And I can go to therapy.”

“Will you… will you be alright?”

Dalia’s mouth twitched, almost into a smile.

“I’ll try, at least,” she said, “Maybe someday.”

* * *

Eon Morado and Fenn Meers sat in a secluded space under Burning Rescue guard. They’d both go to prison for kidnapping, no doubt, as would a whole bunch of hired mercenaries, who probably had an impressive list of other crimes under their belt as well. Fenn felt very empty and very much like a failure. Next to him, Eon offered a frayed smile.

“We screwed up, didn’t we?”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Fenn managed.

“Yeah. A part of me always knew it was a bit too iffy, but… I think we both believed we did at least some things right.”

“Maybe. Yes,” Fenn frowned, “Why are you even talking to me, still? I hurt your people.”

“I’m not the one who got hurt,” Eon said, “I was with you. I hurt them too. We should go and… apologise. They may not accept it, and we may not deserve it, but it would be right.”

“Yes.”

Eon shifted and looked up at the sky. Fenn had a feeling most people here were doing a whole bunch of stargazing right now, as if the stars held some answers to any of this.

“It’s funny how much one learns when one’s life goals go up in flames, huh?” Eon said, “While one’s totally useless in stopping it or even helping anyone caught up in it all.”

“Tell me about it,” Fenn said, “Though I think that most people wouldn’t learn even then.”

Eon laughed.

“Maybe there’s some hope for us, then. Maybe we’ll do something good someday.”

Fenn had to smile as well.

“Maybe.”

* * *

Eventually, Lio gave the others some space, or maybe he gave _himself_ space. He walked a bit away from their camp and breathed in the cold night air. Stars spread above him and disappeared into the horizon. It felt so familiar, even comforting. One of the few truly wonderful things they had witnessed back when they had been outlaws riding around the desert.

“Hey,” a familiar voice said, and Lio turned to Galo, who came to stand next to him, “Lucia said they’d call some people to help with the Promare. They’ll figure something out.”

“That’s good,” Lio said, “Will we be going back soon?”

“Yeah. So… what will you do now?”

It was probably only fair someone asked _him_ that too at some point.

“I wouldn’t mind sleeping for _a_ long while,” Lio admitted.

“Yeah, me too,” Galo said, “We can probably sleep on the way back. The back of a fire truck is way comfier than you think.”

“Uh-huh. I don’t really have high standards when it comes to sleeping arrangements, so you don’t need to try to hype it up.”

“Oh, right.”

“But after we get back, I’ll have a lot of work to do. The case needs to be closed, the ones we lost need proper funerals, and we also need to figure out how to break this piece of news to the rest of the world. About the Promare and the Burnish, I mean. It’s going to be a lot. Then, when things calm down, I’ll probably try to find some time to see how the Burnish town project is going. Did they tell you? Some of these people want to build a home of their own.”

“That sounds great!”

“They’ll need a lot of help.”

“And we’ll give them that! Always!”

“Yeah,” Lio said, “So I think we’ll need to postpone that vacation a bit. At least until we’ve got this properly settled.”

Galo shrugged his shoulders.

“That’s fine,” he said, “As long as we’ll get it done at some point.”

He looked up, hands on his hips and a dreamy expression on his face.

“But at least we got to see the stars. I gotta say, you were right; they _are_ way better here.”

“They are,” Lio said quietly. They stood side by side in a comfortable silence, and Lio was reminded of a time they had been watching a different sky after an even bigger blaze.

“You know, I’ve been thinking,” Galo said, “You said you don’t want anyone to get hurt, and that’s why you probably shouldn’t just stay in Promepolis. But if you _want it_ , I’d really like it if you stayed. But I’m not gonna stop you from going away either, no matter how sad it would make me.”

“Well, that’s good. Because you couldn’t stop me if you tried.”

“I don’t know, I’m pretty stubborn.”

“So am I.”

“Yeah, I know,” Galo smiled, “Well, what’s it gonna be? You coming back with me or what?”

“I… Galo, before I answer, I want to ask you something.”

“Sure!”

“Just _how_ sure were you that I wouldn’t burn you back there?”

“A hundred percent!” Galo immediately said and struck a pose, “Or at least, like… ninety percent? Really sure anyway! And besides, you needed help. I couldn’t just leave you there.”

“…right.”

“Hey, I know stuff might be a bit different with your fire around, but we can do whatever we can to accommodate them. Sure, it’s a new responsibility, but we can handle it together!”

“Galo Thymos,” Lio said, “Why are you talking like you’re about to adopt my alien parasites?”

Galo made a mildly disgusted face.

“Aw, c’mon! When you put it like that, it sounds weird and kinda gross! I was trying to be sweet!”

He put his hands on his hips again.

“But I did tell you: I’d adopt anything with you. And if you’re worried about jerks coming after us, then we’ll just face them together, just like we’ve done so far!”

He was looking at Lio, a question he’d asked many times somewhere behind his eyes. Lio could almost hear it again. And this time, he supposed he had to admit that yes, he did really know the answer to it. Lio felt a small spark of something warm in his chest. Slowly, with uncharacteristic hesitation, he held out his hand. Flames flickered on it and started to flow up until his whole hand was on fire. It was the protective kind, but still fire.

Lio didn’t say anything, because the words felt difficult, and they weren’t needed anyway.

Galo smiled, so bright, so warm, and didn’t even hesitate to extend his own hand and press their palms together, fingers upwards for a moment until they were interlaced with Lio’s. The fire crept between Galo’s fingers, but Galo didn’t even flinch, not even when the fire started to spread over both of their arms and extend towards the sky, reaching for the star that wasn’t there anymore. Instead, Galo pulled Lio to him so that they could wrap their arms around each other, and then they were both on fire and yet still didn’t burn.

“We’ll make it work,” Galo said, and he wasn’t talking about just them, but the entire city. Or maybe the world. As if just a few people could really make a difference. They may be able to burn the Earth back into alignment, but changing people was much trickier.

And yet, somehow, Galo said it like it was possible. And at least for that one second, or maybe longer, Lio believed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's it. I really thought this whole thing would be shorter. But I managed it, and I somehow also managed to do a random homage to the fire-kiss at the end of the Guillermo del Toro Hellboy -movie of all things? But I just thought it would be cool to do a less smoochy version of it for the end. :D I even drew that art for it. I'm still learning the drawing tablet, and it was a bit of a speed-paint-y thing, but it's alright, I guess?
> 
> Well, we're at the end now. What did you think? I was so worried to do a fic with so many original characters, and yeah, there were too many of them, and they didn't maybe have enough closure for their arcs because I really don't want to have OCs hog the spotlight in fanfic. But the nature of this fic required them (maybe not all of them, but...), and I knew that. I also think I could have kept the whole thing a bit more concise and have a bit less clutter in the theme-department. Also it would have been fun to get a bit more of that Promare energy into this fic, but that's very much not what I can write, I guess, so we've just got this. But all in all, I'm proud that I did this, and it has been fun. There were some bits I really liked, and I'm glad there were at least some people who weren't completely turned off by the entire premise or my extremely meandering writing. Thank you all!
> 
> My brain keeps gently suggesting that now that I HAVE all these OCs, I could kill some of them off for a murder mystery -sequel, but I refuse to listen to it now. November is NaNoWriMo-time for me anyway, and I've decided not to write fanfic for NaNo just because. I don't know if I'll be writing for Promare again. I love this movie, but I don't know if I'd have anything to offer the fanfic-scene here anymore. If you want to talk to me, though, drop a comment. I'll reply to them all. Speaking of which, thank you so much for commenting! Your comments have really kept me going! I'm VERY unsure when it comes to my writing, so having at least some people tell me they didn't hate it is always reassuring.
> 
> Have a lovely time and stay safe, everyone!

**Author's Note:**

> So... uh... I'm hoping I can get some feedback for this. Posting a multichapter fic is usually really daunting to me because I'm afraid I'll realise somewhere halfway through that it sucks and/or that I can't finish it. But this one I have outlined all the way through and I'm trying to keep it somewhat concise, so I'm feeling somewhat optimistic? It'll still probably be at least ten chapters, I'm guessing.
> 
> Oof, I should go to sleep. Let's see if I wake up realising that starting to post this at the point when I only have two and a half chapters actually written was a terrible idea... :D
> 
> Have a good time everyone, and stay safe!


End file.
